Marie-Pauline Martin 1861-1951
MY REVEREND AND MOST HONORED MOTHER,
Peace and most humble greetings to Our Lord who, after the first months of very painful mourning in our hearts, gives us the consolation of responding to the expectation of so many Carmels, speaking to them of the venerated and so beloved Mother whom he called back to Him on July 28, 1951: Our Reverend Mother Marie, Pauline, AGNÈS DE JÉSUS, the “Little Mother” of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, oldest in age and profession of our Community, which she led for fifty years, having been named Prioress for life by Pope Pius XI in 1923. She would have been ninety years old on September 7, 1951 and had spent sixty-nine years less two months in religion.
The Story of a Soul and the Story of a Family have made known to you, my Reverend Mother, the model home where Our Mother was born at Alençon, on the eve of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, of the year 1861. She was indeed “little Pauline, capable of becoming a saint and very kind”, as Mrs. Martin had asked her, the previous December 8, to her divine Mother, with all the details dictated by her maternal heart. The future was to prove that never was prayer better heard and answered.
From an early age, little Pauline revealed the qualities of mind and heart which were later to give her personality so much value and charm: a virtuous, loving little girl, at the same time bubbly and impulsive, we We shall see her, at the height of her long career, uniting with kindness and intense supernatural radiance, an activity, a remarkable gift of initiative. There was a harmony of sweetness and dynamism in her that was rare and all the more attractive because she herself seemed to be unaware of the extent to which nature and grace had been lavished on her.
Mrs. Martin, a perfect educator, knew how to cultivate this soul of choice with as much love as vigilance. Her lively correspondence with her brother and sister-in-law, M. and Mme Guérin, paints a pleasant picture of Pauline, who, at eighteen months, walks very well and begins to speak well. She also already loves the toilet because, when she has to go out, she quickly runs to the cupboard where her best dress is and holds out her little face, saying: "Daub me." “She is cute and lively at the same time. Or, “she has it all.” But the wise mother could also give this testimony to herself, in the following: “Pauline, until the age of two, was very lively, I was sorry for that, now she is my best. It must be said that I didn't spoil her and that, small as she was, I didn't pass anything on to her, without however torturing her, but she had to give in. »
The child was, in fact, very docile and could no doubt have confessed, like his holy little Thérèse, "that there was no need to tell him twice not to do a thing", and the few The remonstrances she received impressed themselves so well on her memory that she brought them back to us eighty years later.
Such as this little incident: her uncle and godfather, Mr. Guérin, had come to Alençon and suddenly during the meal, Pauline, who must have been six years old, spoke up: "We forgot the nougat for my uncle ?
- Oh! finely distributed Mrs. Martin, it's not for your uncle, my little girl, it's for you! - My shame was so great, told our Mother, that I can still see the place where I was sitting at the table and, of course, I did not eat the too famous nougat. »
The trait having been known, certain friends of our Monastery were delighted, on feast days, to send to the venerable Mother Agnès of Jesus, nougats loved by Pauline!
But we would like, my Reverend Mother, to reveal to you deeper secrets about those first years, which we find happily recounted by our beloved Mother herself, in 1932, in a few pages dedicated to her two Carmelite sisters, and which her usual reserve wanted very brief. We read there: “As a child, Mama took me on her knees and told me stories of the lives of the saints. It was that of the Curé d'Ars that struck me the most, because of the devil who called him: “Vianney! Vianney! And often, I asked mum to tell me about Vianney! »
“Once, she told me that in Heaven the virgins alone would follow the good Jesus everywhere, in the form of a spotless Lamb, that they would be crowned with white roses and would sing a canticle that the others could not sing. So, I told her that I wanted to be a virgin with a beautiful white crown and I asked her what color hers would be, because she had pointed out to me that married people would not have the white crown. She replied that she would, no doubt, have a wreath of red roses. And I exclaimed: “O Mother, I will never marry so as not to have a red crown in Heaven! »
Around the age of five or six, she had a dream which left a deep impression on her: she saw herself led by her Guardian Angel down a small, shaded and very long path, ending in a meadow, where she saw Our Lord, attached to the Cross and which, she told us, seemed alive to her. Her celestial guide made her kneel at his feet and disappeared. She found there an image of her life, and when she entered Carmel, on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, the sight of Christ in the Préau immediately reminded her of the mysterious dream. It is to be remarked that in the year of her death she had drawn the Holy Angels as Protectors; thus, the Angel who had directed her towards Carmel, came back to take her by the hand, for the last stage of the long journey of exile, ending, no longer at the Cross, but in Heaven. She still notices
“At around the same age, in the night, I saw, not in a dream, but in her reality, the Most Blessed Virgin; - Oh ! how beautiful she was! ‑ lean gently over my little bed, and look at me tenderly, like a mother watching over her child. I also looked at her delighted, and thinking; “it is the Blessed Virgin!” Without saying a word to me, she filled my heart with feelings of purity of an inexpressible sweetness. It was a Saturday.
“The next morning, Louise, our servant, called us, Hélène(1) and me, to get dressed. I was very collected and did not say a word to him. She wanted to laugh and have fun. So I begged her to leave me alone because I had seen the Blessed Virgin. She immediately began to make fun of me, tiring me out with her questions. ... I was unhappy, without being able to lose my deep conviction of having seen the Blessed Virgin. I didn't confide anything to mum, a feeling of shyness held me back. But the Blessed Virgin allowed this silence, because, no doubt, our pious mother would have noticed too much the grace that was bestowed on me; I would have noticed it and, perhaps, I would have lost a certain inner happiness that time has not been able to erase.
Our venerable Mother kept this precious favor to herself and revealed it only in exceptional cases. The image of Our Lady of Fatima was sometimes the occasion for her, because it evoked completely, for her, the glimpsed features of her Heavenly Mother. On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of his entry into the Monastery, one of his daughters, to please him, tried to reproduce the dear vision in miniature; she was happy and wrote below this stanza which ends in a prayer:
“One Saturday in my early childhood,
Overnight,
I saw the Virgin and tasted her presence,
Near my bed...
Come back, Mary, to the time of my old age,
Close to me ;
And that my Heaven of eternal youth,
Be close to You..."
(1)His little sister, who died on February 22, 1870.
In October 1868, Pauline and her eldest, Marie, entered as boarders at the Visitation in Le Mans, where Mrs. Martin's sister, Sister Marie-Dosithée, lived. Both suffered greatly from being away from the family hearth, where they were enveloped in such tender affections. But, already energetic... the youngest, on the day of departure, knew how to repress her tears, thinking that by doubling Marie's sobs, she would also add to the pain of their beloved parents.
Her sensitive little heart was suffocating, however, and, she reports, "when I couldn't wait for the holidays any longer, I went to find Marie, during recess, and I said to her: 'Marie, tell me about the vacation. Immediately, because she never refused me anything, she began the story of our return to Alencon: "The bell is ringing outside." It is Mrs. Martin who asks for Marie and Pauline. We go out, we kiss mom! We go to the station, and then: Boom! boom! boom! the locomotive hums; the train is waiting for us, we get on it. Then, on the way! She names me all the stations; and finally: “Bourg-le-Roi”; which is the last and thrills my heart. Marie was enthusiastic herself, only, I sighed when, after having shouted: "Alençon, Alençon!" » and recounted the embraces of dad and our little sisters, she added sadly: « But, no more Hélène! »
Our beloved Mother confided to us some delightful details of her life as a boarder. We do not hesitate to cite them, because they already reveal his early psychology
“After my first confession at the Visitation, I said to my aunt: “Aunt, how sad! I will now be forced to commit sins, to go back to confession.
- What are you saying, my poor child?
- But, aunt, I saw a list at the door of the confessional, where all the nuns have their names. And they pull, on the side, a little cord every week, on leaving confession. All the cords are pulled at the end of the week and they go back to confession just the same the week after; is it therefore that they always commit sins, in order to have absolution? »
“My aunt didn't seem happy with my thoughts and, as I didn't understand the explanations she was giving me, she was already saying that I was stubborn about my ideas.
“Mary was much more docile and much more humble. She was also more forthcoming with our good aunt; when she had made the slightest blunder, she ran to tell him. For me, I had enough to know that she watched me through a transom in the classroom, which was above a small staircase that she had to climb every day. And when she said to me: "Pauline, you talk instead of studying, you have fun with your neighbours, I know..." that made me impatient; I said to myself: "it's not very surprising that she knows what I'm doing since she sees it". But, all the same, I didn't always have fun in class, I did my best there and I found myself unhappy to be seen, just when I was at fault. It is true that my extraordinary vivacity did me great harm. When I had lost the rosette (a small decoration given on Sundays to well-behaved students), I cried till I made myself sick. The mistress said to me one day: "Come on, Pauline, it's not reasonable, you're crying as if you'd lost father and mother." »
The good aunt was more pleased with her niece than she could believe. His letters to his brother and his sister-in-law in Lisieux bear witness to this, from that time
“I have good news to tell you: Mary and Pauline have been received as “children of Jesus”. These poor little girls were touching; Mary said to me: “I pray to little Jesus so much that I believe he will hear me. His confidence was so great that I thought it would be answered. However, there was a lot to do, it's not perfect, but she has such good will that she will manage to do something good. For Pauline, she's a real little elf, who loves it to her heart's content, she also very much wanted to be a “child of Jesus”.
But let's go back to Pauline's story.
“I was inclined to piety, I loved everything that spoke to me of the good Lord. Very often, before going to sleep, I would bury myself under my covers saying to myself: I am going to think that the good Lord never had a beginning and that he will never have an end. never had an end, I still managed, it seems to me, to get a little idea of it, but that it never had a beginning, that impressed me and exceeded me to such an extent, that it there always came a time when I quickly got out of my blankets, to distract myself and stop thinking about a mystery that was overwhelming me. »
On July 2, 1872, when she was almost eleven years old, she approached the Holy Table for the first time: “I made a very good First Communion, it seems to me,” she noted; I was already thinking of being a nun. She strongly desired to recite, in the name of all, the Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin, and the little girl, first designated, having found herself ill, Pauline had the consolation of seeing herself chosen to replace her.
During the New Year's holiday, which followed, little Thérèse was born on January 2, 1873. The event delighted the whole family. More than sixty years later, our Mother reminded us of her joy, when awake, she heard her dad come up the stairs and say: “Children, you have a little sister! As she evoked this fact, her voice was broken by emotion... What a place in Pauline's existence must have been the one whom M. Martin would call the little Queen!
Although entirely oriented towards God, the ardent nature of the little girl knew some human ties towards her mistresses, which she would deeply humble herself later:
“What misery are these exaggerated affections! O my God, why did I not only love you! Why did I "allow myself to be cut off and burned at the same time, my wings, by this deceptive flame of the vain affection of creatures!" I took this poor flame for the true light of happiness, but it died out and I remained wounded, waiting from your Mercy for "brighter and lighter wings", to fly towards you, Lord, divine fire, which alone burn without consuming. »
She had been in Carmel for a long time, and Prioress, when after the death of one of her favorite Mothers, the Superior of the Visitation sent her, in memory, the crucifix of the deceased.
“I placed it prominently, confides our Mother, and often, looking at it, I think of these words of the Imitation: “Love and keep for Friend the one who will not leave you when all the others abandon you. »
It should be said that some of her first affections were not fleeting, because she remained very faithful to them and it was reciprocal. Her best friend from boarding school preceded her by six months in the grave, and it was moving then, we are told, to hear her constantly calling her dear Pauline.
The boarder blamed herself for other little weaknesses in her self-esteem, one of which frequently embellished our recreations. Mother Agnès of Jesus relates it thus:
“Nearly all my companions at the Visitation were noble and it's incredible the vanity that lodges in these little heads of boarders. I know that from experience. "A certain little girl was tormenting me whether, at least, I had a noble parent in my family. I thought about it and luckily found the name M. de Lacauve to give her. She didn't stop there: “What color is your parents' living room, their sofa? " Oh my God ! what will become of me: I didn't know my parents had a living room, nor a couch at home! How to admit this? I don't have the courage. But, my mind was sharp and I immediately think of a kind of little straw chaise-longue, which was at the Pavilion. It's yellow, I tell myself, and looks like a couch. So, I take out my find: "Our sofa is yellow....- It's very distinguished", replies the little student. Vanity of vanities!
For several years, the famous "yellow sofa" was housed in the Monastery, before returning to its place in the Pavillon d'Alençon, with two watercolors painted by Pauline.
But, after his honest accusations, we will believe all the better his other secrets about his intimate feelings: "When it was very hot, in June or July, the mistress made us say our evening prayer in the field - there was a field and cows in the large paddock. It was so poetic this common prayer, in front of the beautiful pure sky, where I stared at a beautiful silver star, whose name I knew, and which delighted me. My heart was full of harmonies...”
“... I received, once, for my New Year's Eve, a beautiful book bound and gilded on the edge. It was Fabiola's story. I was excited to read this. All these portraits of heroes and virgin martyrs delighted me. »
On the other hand, her mistresses appreciated her qualities more and more: very intelligent and studious, she was a brilliant student, especially in certain branches such as French, drawing and cosmography, a science which always interested her; but arithmetic, she confessed, was her stumbling block. Mme Martin was however happy to write to her sister-in-law: “The nuns assured me that she (Pauline) had an astonishing disposition, not for one thing, but for everything in general. »
Sister Marie‑Dosithée said for her part: “Pauline has become surprisingly stronger, only she is not growing much; she will be small, which does not please her. She's a good little girl, with a heart of gold. Our venerated Mother took pleasure in quoting this letter from her good aunt, for the regret expressed was true, and she added, with a hint of mischief, exceeded! »
What can be said of Madame Martin's privileged tenderness for her youngest daughter, whose physical and moral resemblance to her was striking? Her letters betray this weakness, and what could be more touching, for example, than this ingenious solicitude to make the little girl agree to stay at the boarding school during certain vacations, because her eldest Marie, was with her parents, suffering from a contagious disease. “Despite the hope I had given you, I am very sorry to have to tell you that you will not go out during the Easter holidays because, you see, that is impossible; Marie has typhoid fever, it would be dangerous. “... You will come and spend a week in Alençon as soon as Marie is convalescing, it won't be long.
“... I assure you, my little Pauline, that you will not regret it, you will be much happier than if you came at this moment. If you only knew how little pleasure you would have! What torments me is the fear that you will be sad. If I knew you didn't have one, I'd be happy. I will write to you, every two days until you come. »
And after having offered him various entertaining occupations, the dear mother adds:
“If you don't like it, you won't do it. If you prefer knitting, ask your aunt to have you buy some beautiful blue and white wool, you can make stockings for Thérèse. And if that doesn't interest you either, buy some upholstery wool and make me a nice little stool or whatever you like, or two more pictures for my desk, I need them.
“Write me a little letter and tell me if you are sad. If you have any, it is better to come, we will do what we can to prevent you from seeing Marie. Your father kisses you very much. He is also very much afraid that you will be in pain. »
The "little Paulin" as he was called in the family was, it must be said, the beloved of all. Her parents, Marie, her little sisters loved her dearly and as soon as little Thérèse knew something about her, if someone asked her what she was thinking, the usual answer was: "to Pauline".
Her good aunt Visitandine expressed herself thus on the attraction exerted by the young boarder: “It is a pleasure to have this child; everyone loves her, she is so caressing and so kind; if the good Lord leaves her on earth, she will be a happy mortal; she adapts to everything, she always agrees... For me, just seeing her makes me happy, she is so cheerful and has such a good little manner. »
But, the most remarkable thing is that, from this onslaught of tenderness and this sympathy which she suffered all her life, Pauline felt no damage, for, far from taking advantage of it, she always responded to it with a simple simplicity. , as sincere at the height of fame as in his childhood.
In October 1875, Pauline returned alone to the Visitation, her dear Marie having finished her studies. It was a hard sacrifice for him, for the two were inseparable and, although of very different characters, there was between them a real fusion of souls and a reciprocal admiration which never wavered.
It is especially since this time that the letters of the mother to her isolated boarder multiplied; she pours out there with a spontaneity and an exquisite charm, which we will find later under the pen of Mother Agnès of Jesus. Here are some excerpts from this maternal letter:
“I cannot tell you how happy your last letter made me; I have seen all the efforts you make, despite your natural vivacity, to please us all. I am infinitely grateful to you; if you only knew how much I love you, everything about you attracts me. »
“I'm glad to see you're still on the Honor Roll; it compensates me for all my little tribulations. When I think that I have a Pauline at Le Mans, who will come back to me soon, I find myself so happy!
“Farewell, my dear Pauline, you, you are my true friend, you give me the courage to endure life with patience;
Or again: “Your last letter gave me even more pleasure than the others and, to make matters worse, your aunt tells me that she is very happy with you, that you are very obedient and very cute. Thank you, my Pauline, for making us all happy in this way. The good Lord will reward you for it in this world and in the next, because we are much happier, even in the present life when we bravely do our duty. »
Far from taking pride in the preference of which she was the object, Pauline found in it a stimulus to do well in order to procure for her dear mother all the possible consolation. Thus she wrote to him in 1877: My dear little Mother, I was very happy on the day of the decorations. I didn't expect to have all my notes complete; if I could have the white crown, what joy it would be for you, my dear little Mother; so I will do my best to get it. My aunt was very happy with my report, she hopes to see soon her Pauline child of Marie. I'm looking forward to February 2. »
She suffered, around this time, from very violent and continual headaches, which greatly fatigued her, and they had to force her to complete rest, which distressed her.
Her good Mother did her best to reassure her: “What I recommend to you is not to worry, neither about your prices, nor about the white crown; I ask only one thing, that your mistresses be satisfied with you, and I see with great satisfaction that this is so, because Sister Marie Louise de Gonzague wrote to me today. »
Our dear Mother, however, had a painful disappointment at the distribution of prizes which preceded her departure from the Visitation; she narrates it herself in these terms:
“I expected, with my prizes, to receive the “white crown”. It was the highest mark of general satisfaction with a pupil leaving boarding school. I had seen him give only once during my nine years at boarding school. Above all, to obtain it, it was necessary that throughout the last year, the student had only had the highest marks, that she had not missed the Honor Roll, the medallion of politeness, etc I examined my notes without saying anything, and I saw that the white crown was going to fall to me. But, extraordinary thing, nobody but me thought of it.
I come to the distribution of prizes. No white crown for Pauline, for anyone!
As I was crying at the end, going to kiss the Superior, I told her the reason: “Mom is very ill and I would have been so happy to bring her the white crown. The poor Superior seemed very surprised. They tried, then, to explain the thing to me, I had a point of politeness which I would have missed in the last quarter. I knew it very well, but since it was later recognized that I had not personally been wrong in a little story with a novice, where the whole first class was at fault, I said to myself: "I will have everything likewise the white crown. If I had entrusted my hopes to the first mistress, it was done.
"Mama saw me so upset about this that she said to me: 'But don't worry so much, my little Pauline, I don't care, I'm very happy with you, and if you want, I'll buy you a white crown! Yes, but it was not that crown that I would have wanted. »
The last year of her stay in Le Mans had been bereaved by the very edifying death of her pious aunt, Sister Marie-Dosithée, on February 24, 1877. The niece had put all her candid fervor into action to try to keep her on earth. We can judge by this letter that she wrote to her mother on February 4: “My dear little Mother, here I am at last a child of Mary! How happy I am to be able to tell you this news; I thought of you the day of my reception and I prayed for you all. My happiness would have been perfect if my aunt had been cured; I hoped so with all my heart; no one could take that hope away from me; now, I am really obliged to submit to the will of the good God, since he did not want it. I went to see her as soon as I received it; it was during vespers, she was very happy to see me the blue ribbon and the star so much desired. All day this dear aunt has been better, today I saw her for a moment, she didn't look so good. Decidedly, Father de la Colombière did not want to be beatified; when I go to Heaven, I will ask God where he belongs so as not to search too much, and when I have found him, I will humbly ask him to have the goodness to listen to me for five minutes, because I want to know why he didn't heal my aunt, and if his reasons are really reasonable... To get a miracle, I was told you had to have faith, well, I can say that I did. I had such a way as to transport all the mountains of this world to the moon; I had never had such a hope; the nuns seemed to doubt, even our Mother, there was only me to believe and to hope; that is why Father de la Colombière did not want to hear us!
"... It does me good to say this again to you, my dear little Mother, because you see, I can only be happy after having entrusted everything to you, it is only you who understands perfectly your Pauline.Your little girl,
Pauline, “child of Mary. »
In pencil, the revered patient had added these lines: “Our Pauline was very surprised not to have a miracle, she believed that at three o'clock, I was going to be cured (it was the time of her reception). NTH Mother having told her that I was not, she threw herself on her, flooding her with her tears and could not make the usual prayer. »
A few days after the departure for the true homeland of this beloved aunt, Pauline received a grace which she confided in her dear Marie:
“Would you believe it, my darling little sister, you will find me very childish, I wrote her (to my aunt) a letter, I had something important to entrust to her... I had asked her for an answer by n any way. I had a dream last night, which gave me this answer perfectly, much longer and in a much more satisfying way than I had dared to hope. We were leaving for mass at seven o'clock when I saw him in the cloister of Notre-Dame des Victoires, holding out his arms to me with a celestial smile. Judge with what joy, with what happiness I threw myself there; I covered her with kisses, I no longer possessed myself. After a few moments of stupefaction, of surprise, a little coming to my senses, I look at her and say to her: "But, my aunt, how is it that you are here, you were nevertheless dead..." No answer, but still the same smile. After taking several steps towards the sanctuary of Notre-Dame des Victoires, she finally speaks: "I have come, my little Pauline, to give you the answer to your letter, I have read it entirely, without skipping a beat. one word...” I stayed with her for about five minutes, listening to her with love and respect. Oh ! how beautiful she was! This is of course his figure from Heaven. We recognize her all the same: she still has an air of abandonment. But she is much more beautiful, her beauty is incomparable, there is no creature on earth that can equal her. The five minutes passed very quickly and I found myself alone, the vision had disappeared! »
This story so impressed the dear bereaved families of Alençon and Lisieux that they saw in it something of a supernatural manifestation. The Superior of the Visitation, fearing that Pauline would draw self-esteem from it, dissuaded her from attaching importance to this dream, and the advice was so well followed by the docile child, that she did not had nothing more at heart than to destroy near his own the effect produced.
His mother's perspicacity was not taken, for she wrote: "You tell me that my letter surprised you, yours surprised me no less, so we are quits." I cannot tell you that your famous dream did not strike me extremely; if it is as you told us, it is a bit out of the ordinary and seemed like a dream to me. Finally, let's put it for a dream, that does not prevent it from being very consoling; for me, I experienced a very great joy.
“Don't worry, my Pauline, I don't think you're a saint, it takes a lifetime to reach perfection and. you still only have good intentions, which make me hope that you will be one day, if you persevere. That's actually all I think of you. »
Of Pauline's "good intentions", we discover the trace in an intimate outpouring with one of her companions, who had remained at the boarding school during the Easter holiday of that same year, and whom she wanted to charitably distract. We can only give extracts from this long epistle, where she depicts her feelings with an originality quite in her own way:
“...It thunders very loudly, my loneliness frightens me a little, the wind blows violently. The good Lord, who has no reason to be pleased with me, could very well put me to death, but I don't know why I'm not afraid of death. I hope that Our Lord will take pity on me, because, after all, when I offend him, it is not voluntarily. so I am quite willing to go, if he wishes, but I would like to be informed a quarter of an hour before, in order to prepare myself well, so as not to stay too long in the terrible environment.
“... I prefer to impose penances on myself on earth, or rather, to receive with joy the little sufferings that the good Lord sends me.
“…What should I tell you about my practices of humility? How can you humiliate yourself deeply when all day, or from morning to night, you are kissed, pampered, spoiled. I only hear these words: “Ah! How fortunate that Pauline is here, that we are happy now. My little Paulin is coming to talk to me a bit, Mom tells me, it will do me good. Oh ! I would be happy to always have you with me. And Marie: "It's my turn, Pauline, come with me to the garden." And Therese and Celine hang around my neck, so much so that my head hurts.
“Farewell, my dear little Louise, do not imitate me, pray a little to Our Lord for me, so that I may become good. »
Your friend, Pauline, child of Mary.
A long postscript follows, from which we quote this passage:
“...All the time of my holidays, I will have the great consolation of carrying my dear aunt's Christ with me, I do not leave him for a single moment; it is, I believe, the greatest pleasure that Mama has ever given me. It is absolutely as if I were with my aunt, she follows me everywhere, and Our Lord, she and I, are happy to spend these fifteen days together. We often get together to talk about things in heaven, but it's so beautiful that I don't understand anything about it; finally, I don't need to understand, after all, as long as I love the good God and that I serve him, isn't that all that is needed? »
However, a new mourning even more painful than that of Sister Marie-Dosithée was preparing. The heroic Mrs. Martin was grappling with an illness that had plagued her for a long time, and the evolution of which was to precipitate and soon destroy her life. Faced with her unfinished maternal task, she implored Heaven for a cure, which seemed to her, as to her family, necessary, while giving her prayer an admirable note of abandonment.
Encouraged by her husband, she undertook a pilgrimage to Lourdes in June 1877 with her three eldest daughters, convinced that the Blessed Virgin would better listen to her voice, mingled with the innocent supplication of her children.
"I count on you more than on the others, I don't know why I have this idea", she confessed to her beloved Pauline, then sixteen years old:
This time again she clung so strongly to the assurance of a miracle that the prudent mother took fright and wrote to her brother:
“Pauline absolutely wants to force me to tell her that I will be cured, because, she is assured, it is a sure sign of healing, when the sick have a lot of hope. But I cannot satisfy her in that, because my hope does not extend to certainty. If I'm not cured instantly, I don't know what will become of poor Pauline, she takes it too seriously, the blow will be hard. »
Alas! Pauline "did not jump for joy" as she had promised herself, because the miracle so much desired was not obtained. The courageous mother worked to cheer everyone up: “The trip made things worse,” she confided to Mr. Guérin. However, I am in no way desperate, I believe that I will recover, and this idea came to me at my last farewell to the cave, so I was very cheerful when I returned. I sang as well on my way back as on my way, but the children didn't do the same, they were sorry. I had a hard time calming them down: Pauline didn't want to eat any more, I had to tell her, an hour after leaving: “I really think I'm cured. A sudden joy lit up her face, she told me she was getting hungry; she ate well and fell asleep. »
But to the physical relief, she wanted moral relief to be added and she wrote to her darling daughter who had returned to Le Mans:
“I want to know in what state of mind you find yourself, and if you are still angry with the Blessed Virgin? Do not hope for many joys on earth, you would have too many disappointments... Courage and confidence! Pray with faith to the Mother of Mercy, she will come to our aid, with the kindness and gentleness of the most tender mother. »
Pauline could not shun the Virgin Mary, whose loving child she was. Seeing the failure of the pilgrimage, she took it into her head to buy, through her own suffering, the desired cure: Mrs. Martin kindly teases her:
“You tell me that you would like to suffer for me. I would be very sorry about that, so you don't want me to go to Heaven, you would like everything for yourself... You don't mind, my Pauline! And I, for my part, I might have a hundred years of Purgatory to do! Do you want to do them for me too? As for getting into it, you might as well take it all! »
In the first days of August, Pauline left her dear Visitation with the hope of returning there one day, to consecrate her life to God. She found the paternal house in anguish, because her poor mother was very ill, and she arrived to receive, in a way, her last recommendations. To her two eldest daughters, the dying woman entrusted the education of their little sisters, but it seems obvious that she foresaw the maternal role that would fall to her younger daughter and gave her the investiture in an almost prophetic way.
Her Pauline was alone by her bed when she took her hands and kissed them respectfully, saying: “O my Pauline! you are my treasure. I know very well that you will be a nun, that you will become a saint; I am unworthy to have a daughter like you, you are my glory and my happiness.”
I felt rather embarrassed by these testimonies, humbly admits our Mother, because I knew too well that I was far from deserving them. It was she, however, who received a message full of consolation for all her loved ones, in the form of a mysterious dream, one of the nights which followed the death of this "incomparable" mother, she saw an Angel reclining on a tablecloth of sand, sparkling with light, tracing there the divine bliss: "Blessed are those who weep, because they will be consoled." Wasn't she entitled, indeed, to the promised reward, this holy mother, who had suffered and worked so valiantly, in a perpetual act of faith and abandonment?
After the death of Mrs. Martin, Marie assumed with her tireless devotion, the material direction, in which the two previous years spent with the family had formed her, while Pauline, without looking for it, took on the moral level, a real ascendancy on her sisters.
We know from the Story of a Soul, the spontaneous gesture of an orphan Thérèse, throwing herself into her arms and choosing her for “Little Mother”. Moreover, his admiration for her dated from his youngest age Recalling his very early childhood, she writes:
“Sometimes I heard that Pauline would be a nun. So without really knowing what it was, I thought: "I too will be a nun!" This is one of my earliest memories, and since then I have never changed my resolution. So it was his example that, from the age of two, drew me to the Bridegroom of Virgins. »
IV
When the family had left Alençon for Lisieux, life was reorganized at Les Buissonnets, under the loving direction of M. Martin. Yes, love presided over everything in this ideal environment, where everyone gave God the first place, and where everyone had at heart to make others happy.
Our venerated Mother proved to be, like her mother, an excellent educator with her little sisters, impregnating her firmness with gentleness, allowing nothing defective to pass and never going back on a given order. So what pride for Thérèse to run to announce to her Father a good mark or a reward, specifying ‑ which in her eyes doubled its value ‑: “It was Pauline who said it first. With what intuitive sense, the young girl knew how to train these little souls, put the highest truths within their reach, ask a lot of them, without ever constraining or discouraging them. His holy little Thérèse has given us too many details on this subject for it to be necessary to enlarge on it; his elite nature had only to allow itself to be molded by the fraternal hand, to become the masterpiece, "the exquisite miniature of holiness" which delights the universe!...
Pauline also dealt very particularly with preparing Céline for her first Communion, and the youngest, already starving for the Host, would have liked to take advantage of the pious exhortations reserved for her inseparable sister.
Apart from her role as mistress, Pauline devoted herself to works of art, in which her patience and her taste excelled: lace, including a magnificent alb in embroidered net, fine paintings on parchment and ivory, and the good M Martin, happy to encourage his talent, did not fail, on his travels to Paris, to bring him shells of gold, or the best supplies for his work.
And, if there was a note of cheerfulness to be provided, our artist's imagination was never short, because she was truly gifted at everything. She versified compliments that her little sisters recited to their father or Aunt Guérin. At the distribution of the prizes she organized at Les Buissonnets, for her only pupil, distribution where the strictest justice was kept, she composed skits, distributed the roles to the young actresses, Céline, Thérèse and their cousins. In a word, she was an animator and a sower of joy, as she remained until the end of her life.
Even in the spiritual realm, Pauline was still the inspiration, one might say. After he left the Visitation, his good Father had offered him a present of his choice; immediately, having asked for the collection of the Liturgical Year of Dom Guéranger, it was immediately purchased from him. At the boarding school, she had had the opportunity to see the famous Benedictine monk several times, whose gaze of penetrating intelligence had struck her, and she had already been able to taste his work deeply. It is therefore thanks to her that the vigils at Les Buissonnets were blessedly nourished by the reading of the Liturgical Year; later, in Carmel, Mother Agnès of Jesus will always find nourishment there for her spiritual life.
Mr. Martin had baptized Marie "his diamond", whose good and impetuous heart threw forth its brilliance without pretence. Pauline was "her fine pearl", because her richness of soul, spirit and feelings was sifted with modesty and an enveloping gentleness. All its delicacy was guessed in this name. The former jeweler knew all about jewels.
Thérèse entered the Benedictine abbey as a half-boarder in October 1881. Pauline's task with her seemed to be over; she was twenty years old and thought that she should not wait any longer to respond to the divine call, heard for so long.
Her attraction had, until then, carried her towards her dear Visitation of Le Mans. She asked at what age she could enter. "At twenty-two or twenty-three," was the answer.
She bowed to this delay and waited without worry when, on February 16, 1882, a decisive pardon came to modify her plans. She reports it in these terms:
“I attended the six o'clock mass at Saint-Jacques, in the chapel of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, with Papa and Marie. Suddenly, a very bright light shone in my soul, the good Lord showed me clearly that it was not at the Visitation that he wanted me, but at Carmel... I must say that the memory of a friend, who had died in predestiny the previous year, came back to my memory. She must have been praying for me for sure. I had been assured that she was thinking of entering Carmel and would have taken the name of Sister Agnes of Jesus there. I remember that I felt myself blushing with emotion and, going and returning for Communion, I was afraid that this emotion would appear. I had never thought of Carmel and, in an instant, I found myself drawn there by an irresistible attraction. “On returning to Les Buissonnets, she confided her secret to her sister Marie who, despite her pain, only expressed the fear that her health was too frail for such an austere rule. Seeking to comfort her, Pauline drew in front of her, at random, a spiritual bouquet from her beloved book The Imitation of Jesus Christ, and she came across this passage:
"Food, drink, clothing, and other things necessary to sustain the body, are a burden to a fervent soul. (lm., 1. 111, ch. 26.) This was the answer to the objection. Her resolution being firm, she wasted no time in drawing up her plans, and the same day she sought permission from her generous father. He made the same remark as Mary, but seemed happy with the honor he had been given to offer to Carmel the first of his daughters who wanted to give herself to God. Shortly after, the young aspirant came to present herself at our monastery.
The Rev. Mother Marie de Gonzague, then Prioress, welcomed this sympathetic subject. Pauline, not believing that there was a vacant place in Lisieux, only asked that we support her approach with our Mothers of Caen. What was his joyful surprise to hear that a cell would be found for him in Lisieux. At the next visit, she was given the name of Sister Agnes of Jesus, which suited her so well.
The entrance was set for October 2, 1882. “Day of tears and blessings” wrote Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Ah! How sweet it is for us, too, to give thanks for this day, the tears of which have caused such abundant harvests to sprout for our Carmel!
Mr. Martin, accompanied by Marie and Mr. Guérin, himself drove his Pauline to the Carmel. On the threshold of the fence were Canon Delatroëtte, Superior of the Monastery, and Abbé Ducellier, vicar of Saint-Pierre Cathedral and his future Archpriest. The latter, in his capacity as director, addressed a few touching words to his spiritual daughter.
Then the convent door closed, the Community embraced the new arrival and they found her so pale, as a result of emotion, that they wanted to make her sit down. She protested firmly: "But I'm not sick!" We smiled and we understood from this first reaction that the little postulant did not lack energy.
The next day, her mistress of the novitiate, our holy Foundress, Mother Geneviève de Sainte‑Thérèse, seeing her look a little pensive, asked her “Are you sad?‑ Yes, my Mother.‑ And why? that I entered Carmel old. »
She was, as we know, twenty-one years old!
Our dear Mother still confided to us long after, another memory of the first days, and the meaning she gave to it:
“When I arrived here, my companions asked me: “What is your path, to you? Me, this is it. I didn't know what to answer and said to myself that, no doubt, I would know later. Well ! like my little Thérèse, my way is simplicity, it is the Gospel. »
It was, indeed, his very straight and sure line, as his long religious life will reveal.
Although having made the full sacrifice of her family, she suffered greatly from the immense grief that continued to undermine little Thérèse. She had learned by chance of her next entry into Carmel, by overhearing a conversation between Marie and Pauline, at Les Buissonnets, and the fact that her little Mother had kept it hidden from her had made her grief even more acute.
“Alas! remarked our Mother painfully, I made the tender heart of our little Thérèse bleed by my silence. Ah! if I had known how to make her suffer so much, how differently I would have gone about it, how I would have entrusted everything to her! Didn't she possess, at the age of nine, a wisdom that I could not suspect? »
“I didn't know,” she confesses again, “the abyss of sadness hollowed out in her soul by my departure. I understand so well now that the five minutes they gave her with me in the visiting room could only make her more anxious... I thought I was doing very well and that Marie was going to understand me and make my poor little Thérèse understand me. , to whom I always saw pearling tears in the eyes; she forced herself not to cry. Ah! again, if only I had known! »
From then on, we can easily guess her suffering during the strange illness of the holy child, whose heart remained strained towards her little Mother, to the point that she accepted the absence of her big sister Marie, only to let her go. at mass, or see Pauline.
The time of her Taking the Habit was approaching: April 6, 1883. Would she be deprived of seeing her beloved Thérèse there again? She could not resign herself to it and told the little patient that she wanted her completely restored on the day of her engagement.
His wish was granted. A lull allowed little Therese to be brought to the parlor before the dressing ceremony. Let us listen to the blessed child tell us: “I was able to kiss my dear mother, sit on her knees, hide under her veil and receive her gentle caresses; I could contemplate her, so ravishing under her white finery! Truly, it was a fine day in the midst of my dark ordeal; but that day, or rather that hour passed quickly, and soon I had to get back into the carriage which took me away from Carmel! Sweet encounter also for the happy fiancée!
But the anxieties were to resume the next day, until the miraculous intervention of the Virgin of the Smile, on the following May 13. What joy for the young novice in gathering the echoes of this celestial vision, first from the mouth of Mary.
“How good is the Blessed Virgin! she writes to the privileged little girl. I can't wait to see your little face so dear to my heart. Until then, I can see it, it's true, but for some time now my telescope hasn't been good; while you were so sick i dropped a tear on the glass and suddenly it darkened.
“Finally, the Blessed Virgin holds us together under her mantle, she keeps us close to her heart, she blesses us, she loves us, she caresses us with the same hand! How to say after that that Thérésita is far from Agnès? and Agnes of Theresita?
“Farewell, let us love the Blessed Virgin well, let us love her, she is a Mother and, under her gaze, under her hand, the little boat of your heart is always safe and is moving in peace towards Heaven. »
Soon after, Thérèse came to the gate to give him the details of her recovery.
Strengthened in her desires for holiness by this Marian favour, the nun poured it out with her father, at the end of this year of grace: "I ask the good Lord to keep you many more happy years for your little family, of which you are the model, the support, the protector, the tutelary angel. Dear Dad, if we followed in your footsteps, we would all be well placed up there! As for me, who at this moment is the spoiled child of the good Lord and of my earthly father, I would be most guilty if I showed myself ungrateful, if I did not try to produce one hundred for one.
“Oh! my little Father, as I desire! how I want to be holy! This is all my ambition, I know that everything else passes, I know that nothing is stable here below, and I want to attach myself to God more and more. What mercy on his part to have drawn me to him so young and the first! I say the first, because I like to think that his divine gaze will still fascinate several little doves of your nest, beloved and privileged Father. In the meantime, pray well for all of us; ask that your little Carmelite, your poor little “pearl”, be truly a precious pearl in the eyes of the good God and his Angels, and that she come one day and place herself on your forehead, to shine there for all eternity. »
The following spring, with what maternal solicitude she set about preparing her little daughter's heart for First Communion. Her pious imagination assisted her art in the elaboration of the delightful notebook, entirely composed, drawn and painted by her, where all the flowers of nature form, by their mystical symbol, an abundant sheaf of virtues. On the other hand, by means of he correspondence followed and allowed exceptionally, the little Mother supported Thérèse's persevering effort: “I see that my Thérésita is preparing her heart well for the big day. You have to go on and not stop for a moment, because a lost moment is one less flower in the little garden... You will truly be the little dove who carries her heart to the good Jesus. I thought of you when I placed this image at the beginning of the book, but do you really know what Jesus will give back to you in turn? He will bring you his Heart too! Undoubtedly, one could believe that the heart of Thérésita had to wait for nothing other than a small place in that of Jesus, but not at all, it is the small Host, it is the Heart of Jesus which will demand entry in Thérèse's heart! Oh ! Wonderful ! Is two and a half months too long to think about it and sow flowers on the passage of this sweet Host, which contains Heaven? “Adieu, my Benjamin, oh! don't get tired of gardening, the days pass quickly and Jesus is coming. »
By a delicacy of Providence, the two soul‑sisters were to give themselves to Jesus, on the same day - May 8, 1884 - in all the fullness of their love, little Thérèse, in her fusion with the God of the Host, and Sister Agnes of Jesus in her virginal consecration.
The day before, she drew these lines to their revered father:
"I asked the Lord only one thing, that is to live in his house, all the days of my life. »
My beloved little Father,
Your angel, Thérésita must not come alone to throw herself at your feet, to ask forgiveness and blessing on this blessed eve of the greatest of days. Your Agnès too, my dear Papa, she especially, could not approach the altar without having obtained this forgiveness from your heart. Twenty-two years is a long time already, long enough, alas! for having had the time and the sad leisure to upset the best of fathers. But, if the good Lord forgives everything with sincere regret, my beloved Father also forgives, I know it, I feel it and it only remains for me to throw myself into his arms to receive this paternal blessing, the first and the sweetest to my heart after that of God.
“See you tomorrow, my dear Papa; see you tomorrow ! Ah! I admit it, pronouncing this word tomorrow, I find it hard to hold back my tears; I picture to myself the feast of the earth, I picture to myself the feast of Heaven; here, a beloved Father, leading his two little daughters as if by the hand to the altar; up there, a dear Mother receiving this offering and presenting it to the spotless Lamb, to the Lamb of virgins. Oh ! what a spectacle, what celebrations! where are the feasts and the joys of the earth that can approach these. »
What shall we add to depict this day of double and so total oblation? Thérèse who, feeling the whole of Heaven living in her heart, and "her Pauline more united to her than ever" wept for joy, while the spouse of Jesus, in great peace, pronounced her holy vows, between the hands of Mother Geneviève of Sainte-Thérèse. It was at the Oratory of the Blessed Sacrament, because the venerated Prioress, then infirm, could not have gone up to the Chapter. The Community was pleased, in the ornamentation, to bring together the two chosen ones, in a delicate symbolism of entwined crowns, doves and escutcheons with the figures of Thérèse and Agnès.
After the death of our beloved Mother, we were surprised and very moved, my Reverend Mother, when she took the formula of her Vows from her writing desk and read on the back:
By the hands of Mary, on this most beautiful day,
Receive, my Jesus, your little lamb.
Everything to please God. Live on love and die on love.
O Jesus, hide me in the secret of your Face, and I will be saved.
At the end of the afternoon, Mr. Martin brought his little first Communicant to the Carmel. Thérèse recalled it thus:
“And I saw my Pauline become the Bride of Jesus; I saw her with her white veil like mine and her crown of roses. My joy was without bitterness; I hoped to join her soon and wait by her side for Heaven. »
Mother Agnès of Jesus was no less consoled: “I saw my little Thérèse with her white veil like mine. She was looking at me with such a profound and sweet air! What moments for both of us! “The outer corolla of this pure flower, that is to say its muslin garments, seemed to me crumpled and of a rather dull whiteness. I reflected on this to the Community who had come to see her, no one had noticed, on the contrary. And I think today that material whiteness, were it the whiteness of snow, cannot be compared to the supernatural whiteness of a heart where God takes his pleasures, where he resides through Communion. As I saw the divine whiteness of a seraph's heart, the other lost all its radiance.
I left the parlor quite comforted, a bit like the Apostles when they came down from Tabor. A celestial atmosphere surrounded me. O my God, if the sight of an Angel of the earth could strengthen me, thus console me, what will it be like to see your uncreated beauty eternally, from which flows all the beauty of the saints. »
The years of Sister Agnes of Jesus' novitiate passed normally. In her difficulties, she went to seek light from Saint Mother Geneviève who, gaining confidence in her, came to confide in her. One day, she put her hand on his head, and said to him, with a good smile: “That child! I cannot prevent myself from entrusting my soul to him! » And the young nun knew so well how to take advantage of his advice to exercise a calming influence around her, that she still received the nickname « angel of peace ».
From the beginning of his life in Carmel, his artistic talent was put to use; she says it herself:
“I devoted myself to this work for the Community which was poor, and I got tired of it enough. At the time of the First Communions, I sometimes painted four images on parchment in one day, images representing the First Communion of Saint Louis de Gonzague and composed of three characters. I then made miniatures on ivory. I also painted the Holy Face, the Blessed Virgin and saints, even on ornaments. »
His miniatures were veritable little masterpieces; finally she illuminated and entirely wrote altar canons, even approached, with success, the Portrait, brushed a few canvases, one of which depicted our Father Saint Elijah, for the monastery. But, when orders from outside seemed to exceed her competence, she had recourse to the fraternal help of Céline, at Les Buissonnets, and humbly asked her: "I would like to know, frankly, if you find any drawing faults in my little portraits, vanity aside. “Ah if you only knew, my dear Céline, what peace one tastes in working only out of obedience, it's very sweet to experience, because, without that, what trouble! I couldn't take any more of my portraits, but after all, isn't it Jesus who puts the brush in my hand? Whether I am deemed an artist or not, what does it matter if I become an artist by virtue. »
His great sureness of hand still made him entrust the inscription of sentences in our regular places, and they are still carefully preserved there. (Only a tiny part, alas!)
“I wish the two little doves who remained at Les Buissonnets the same grace as that enjoyed by their elders. I know they long for it. May this desire, which is that of an incomparable Father, be fulfilled one day. “Farewell, my darling little Father, what happiness to be your daughter. The "diamond" kisses you.
Communicating these memories, much later, Mother Agnès of Jesus will say: “The brush, a long time ago, fell from my hands. The Community no longer needs my work, it only needs saints, living copies of our beloved Spouse. Why am I not one of these copies! »
It was to mold souls that she was going to have to devote herself more and more. His last letter to Mr. Martin revealed to us the presence of his sister Marie, “the diamond” at Carmel. Sister Agnès of Jesus was convinced of her vocation and found that she lingered too long in the world. Judging Céline to be old enough to replace her with their father, she tried to hasten her entry. She wrote to him at the beginning of 1886:
“May this year be for you and for me, the great year. Ah! if you only knew how much I desire you, how more and more I feel your marked place next to me, in this blessed little cloister
But the aspirant was not in such a hurry to break her ties: her father loved her and she herself suffered greatly from leaving him. His independent nature - we know the saying from his childhood: "I am very free, me!" - dreaded the subjugation of religious life; moreover, she was twenty-six and a half years old and had been the mistress of the house for nine years. Her inner struggle was painful but, a generous and upright soul, on the authorized advice of Father Pichon, S. J, her director, she acquiesced in the divine will, which prompted her Pauline to write to her:
“There is truly for you the star of life, of a new life; the morning star
bathed in tears at dawn, but whose sunset will be so beautiful. You are very happy that an angel found himself on your way to show you this blessed star. Mother Geneviève told me that she only thinks of you. She is a saint whose prayers are worth something. She told me that Mother X, whose mistress she was in her novitiate, had felt the same struggles as you, not only before her entry, but until her Profession. Well ! she added, she was the happiest of the Carmelites I have known. Farewell, my Marie, how I would like to know if your heart is as tight as yesterday? Our Mother and I are just praying for you. »
And a little later: “How I would like to see you always happy; for that, if it were possible, I would sacrifice all my happiness, yes, all of it; but the good Lord would not want my sacrifices, he is rich enough to enrich two of them, and moreover, being the principle and the end of all joy, his love necessarily gives happiness. »
Sister Agnès of Jesus knew how to console her father with highly supernatural thoughts:
“My darling little Father, do you know that you can be proud? Not from me, or from any one in particular, but from God's choice and his marked predilection for the five of us. If I wrote your story, I would do like our Mother Saint Thérèse, who did not want hers to be called Life. "It is not the book of my life," she said, "it is the book of mercy, it is the book of the grandeurs of the Lord." Well ! our own story, my little Father, so beloved, it is also the book of the Lord's mercies. I like to think that. It is such a sweet reason for gratitude and love. I end with these two words, which sum up all my feelings for my Father in Heaven and for my Father on earth.
Your eldest pearl; I'm little Jacob who stole the birthright. »
It was on October 15, 1886, that Mr. Martin made his second holocaust, by giving to God what he complacently called: "his great, his first."
Aware of her spiritual motherhood over her sisters whom she had preceded in Carmel, Sister Agnès of Jesus enveloped her dear Marie, her former confidante of the Visitation and Les Buissonnets, with clairvoyant vigilance. She was too well acquainted with the ardent passion of her soul, and the somewhat savage exterior with which she surrounded her virtue, to be frightened by her difficulties in adapting. But with her persuasive gentleness, she virilely drew the novice down the austere path of complete renunciation. When she herself left the novitiate, she left him an image of our holy Mother Thérèse bearing on the front: Only God suffices (Saint Thérèse), and on the back, this text that she had composed:
21 1887 June.
“To my beloved little sister, memory of my leaving the novitiate.
By fully entering into religious life, I feel more than ever the need for Jesus, for Jesus alone. Do not envy the consolations of the earth. Our heart is too big to seek contentment here. Where will we be in a few years? In the grave and who is the one who will love us until then and beyond? Let us work and suffer, the rest is vanity. Saint Thérèse, oh my Mother, do not have to be ashamed of your two children. They want to be saints. Ah! fulfill their desire. »
How suggestive still is this note written during a retreat, to that which, because of her white novice veil, she called a dove:
“The little lamb thinks many things; he would like to tell them to his little dove, but that would take too long. To sum up: let us not look for joys in this world, because the best and the purest are like the water of Jacob's well, and the Samaritan woman complained of going often to draw there and of always being thirsty. Our mother (Marie de Gonzague) is a ray of God's goodness, a clear and transparent stream of water flowing from the eternal river; you can quench your thirst there, but to stop being thirsty, you have to go back to the source.
“Little dove, come with the lamb, drink of this springing water until eternal life.
“Don't have any more tears in your eyes, because everything passes.
“Love Jesus very much, because you never miss him.
“Fly wherever Jesus calls you: be the first everywhere, the most faithful in everything. Forget it
< the joy that passes away, and Jesus will give you eternal joy.
“After my retirement, I hope to set an example for you. I see God's will for us so clearly. Good evening, little dove, the lamb of Jesus sends you his heart. »
It was in 1887, and Carmel was soon to open up to the youngest beloved, Thérésita, as she was called by analogy with the little niece of our Mother Saint Thérèse.
The Community as a whole welcomed him very favorably because it was not unaware of his early virtue. The one who lent him the firmest support was undoubtedly his little Mother. However, out of prudence, she tried to slow down her ardor, but having sounded better than anyone the admirable ways of God in this predestined child, she no longer hesitated to assist her with all her activity.
We do not have to repeat here the story of the difficulties encountered by Thérèse on her way, near her uncle, the Superior of the Carmel, the Bishop of Bayeux, until her courageous plea to Pope Leo XIII. The inspiration for all her endeavors was Sister Agnes of Jesus. She herself first faced the opposition of their uncle Guérin, by explaining to him the moral and physical distress into which his refusal had thrown the youngest of her nieces.
M. Delatroëtte, who was made more inflexible by the criticisms raised against him in town by an influential family whose daughter was also requesting his admission to Carmel, did not seem to be able to be won over, since all the entreaties of M. Martin, of Mother Marie de Gonzague and even the worthy Mother Geneviève had failed. Only the episcopal authority was likely to have its veto lifted. It is therefore on this side that Sister Agnès of Jesus will direct the attempts. She persuaded her father to do so, telling him of an interview she had just had with the Chaplain of the Carmelites, Father Youf: “She is such a charming child, he had told her, ah! I want it! Since her incomparable father has the heroism to lead her to Monseigneur, let him go straight to Bayeux, and I hope for a good decision. »
“Here is more or less, Father, what M. Youf told me; I confess that the interest he seems to take really touched me, I saw there a priest who understands perfectly that God is free to call souls at the age he pleases. If the fruit is ripe, before the time, is it not right that his divine hand reaches out to pick it?
“All of Carmel prays for the father of our lily, this fruitful tree which only knows how to produce virgins... We also pray for the little lily whose corolla has shown itself today to be so full of diamonds. Let him not lose heart, let him hope, nothing is lost.
"I'm afraid it's too daring to ask you for the trip to Bayeux again?" however, it is necessary if you don't want Benjamin's great journey (Rome) to be covered with a cloud of sadness. “Oh! that you are good, that I love you. If you only knew how tender my heart is when I think of all you want to do for your Queen, all you have done for us. Go, fear nothing, ingratitude does not live in Carmel, we will know how to remember your benefits and God counts them. What a crown he has in store for you!
"... What happiness to see the day of eternity finally dawn after this night of darkness, Then, we will applaud each other for our momentary sacrifices, and the eternal smile of God will be our reward." your smile is for me the smile of God. »
Failure in Bayeux. What will be the tactic in Rome? There was hesitation, then instructions for silence, when, on November 10, Sister Agnès of Jesus sent this confidential letter to her little traveler: “I told you not to ask the Holy Father for anything; today, our Mother and Mother Geneviève advise you to speak, in case, however, that you have the desire to do so. ... Don't let your little heart be troubled, don't pay attention to everyone around you; what does it matter that we hear you? Nothing at all. Ask Jesus how to go about it, it is up to him to instruct you, since it is for his love that you will speak... Think that it is to Jesus himself that you are speaking, that will help you . Formerly, in his mortal life, the Jews were not ashamed to discover their needs to him in the midst of crowds; you, don't blush either, speak and don't be afraid. Above all, that M. Révérony should know nothing of this letter, if you knew how much it would hurt. I only write my thoughts to you after reflection. Mother Geneviève said to me yesterday: “Above all, don't prevent him from speaking to the Holy Father. Our Mother is of this opinion; it was therefore a duty for me to raise the defence. Besides, it's for you; do only what Jesus will inspire you, it is true that the occasion is so beautiful.
" Courage. Above all, don't let yourself be put off by a first refusal, think of the perseverance of the Chanaanite. If the Holy Father seems to say no, you go on: “O most Holy Father, you cannot refuse me, you know that Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me. »
We find here, taken from life, the key qualities of Mother Agnès of Jesus in leading a cause. Tenacity, flexibility, simplicity in skill, search for adequate means to overcome difficulties, courage and loyalty and, above all, a great supernatural spirit, a framework of prayer and trust serving as the basis of the whole enterprise. She put God on her side and therefore did not fear the struggle.
When victory was long overdue, let's see how she reacted, let's listen to her consoling Thérèse after the bitter disappointment of the papal audience:
“... O my Therese, aren't you proud, aren't you happy at the marked preference that Jesus shows you? So young, at fifteen, he already finds you worthy to carry his cross; he finds you worthy of suffering! What an honor for you, if you knew how trials advance your soul on the path of holiness... It is an act of abandonment that you must do, this is God's will for you. How beautiful ! Jesus seems to be sleeping in your little boat, but, don't be afraid, his Heart is watching. »
And that of the little Mother was watching too! As soon as she returned to Lisieux, she suggested that Thérèse write again to Monseigneur de Bayeux, then to the formidable Vicar General whom she had to deftly win over. Everything having been tried humanely, there was nothing left to do but wait for the divine hour.
The bell finally rang for the new Theresita and Sister Agnès of Jesus urged her to enter the arena straight ahead: “Let us love Jesus who loved us so much. May the little fiancée not be afraid to follow her Beloved on the way to Calvary... to resemble him and worthily bear the name of wife, one must always prove love by suffering. »
She does not forget, however, to heal the wound of the paternal heart:
“Yesterday I saw something melancholic on your features and a few tears in your eyes. Do not weep, my dear Father, or shed tears of joy, for it is not to a mortal spouse that you sacrifice us, but to God “who does not die”. One day, in eternity, you will reap the fruits of glory on this tree of the Cross which, here below, only gives bitter fruits. But how sweet the sacrifice is for a heart that loves God! The saints desired suffering because they saw clearly; they plunged their gaze beforehand into eternity, and the vanity of all things was revealed to them, at the same time as the truth of the unique necessity.
“Farewell, our all here below, after Jesus. “Your poor little pearl. »
The admirable father was fit to climb these peaks and he will show it soon after; having given three of his daughters to Carmel and Léonie to the Visitation, when the latter, his dear Céline, told him of her vocation, seized with holy enthusiasm, he did not know what to say: "Yes, the good Lord makes me a great honor in asking me for all my children; if I had something better, I would hasten to offer it to him. »
On the morning of April 9, 1888, on the feast of the Annunciation, postponed to Quasimodo Monday, Thérèse entered Carmel, in all the freshness of her youth and the pure generosity of her love.
In the texts of her depositions at the Trial, our Mother Agnès of Jesus records the fact with these details: as of respect in his presence. She had in her whole person something so dignified, so resolute, so modest, that I was surprised myself.
“One of the Sisters had said to herself: “How imprudent to bring such a young child into Carmel. What an imagination this Sister Agnès of Jesus has; she will be disappointed. She confessed to me that she had been very mistaken. »
The same Sister added: “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is extraordinary, she shows us all. »
“After having adored the Blessed Sacrament and having allowed herself to be led into her little cell, continues our Mother, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to me with such an expression of peace and happiness that I have never forgotten her: "Now I'm here forever!" This supernatural peace never left her, despite all the suffering she had to bear.
"The characteristic note of this period of his life, which extends from his entry into Carmel until the time when the novices were entrusted to him, is humility, the care to be faithful even in the small things, despite constant dryness, I know all that from the confidence she made me of her state of mind, on the days when the Rule allowed us to talk to each other.
“... During recreation and in other circumstances, she deprived herself of our company and sought out the Sisters who were less sympathetic towards her. This quotation, given under oath, depicts the behavior of the young saint towards her two eldest daughters, who were so tenderly beloved. But do we not find in it the eulogy of those who practiced the same abnegation? Having both replaced their beloved mother near their little sister, it is easy to imagine what it could have cost them to see her sometimes misunderstood or treated without the consideration that her age demanded. Mother Agnès of Jesus confesses that she suffered a real martyrdom from it and, however, she tried to warn Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart against this temptation: she wrote to her, no doubt after some incident of this kind:
“Do you want me to tell you something? This little adventure proves to us that we really shouldn't concern ourselves with Thérèse of the Child Jesus. As for me, I'll let her do it entirely; let her ask what she wants, let her be granted whatever she asks, we don't have to answer for it; let's keep our peace, let's keep our soul...it's enough to take care of ourselves. The good Lord will bless us if we act like this. Let's go straight our way. Without it, we will find so many occasions for trouble that it will be impossible to resist. We have so much to rejoice about; what destinies: God and our soul. Let us leave the rest to his goodness, to his Providence, to his love. »
On May 22, 1888, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart made her profession and her little goddaughter had the joy of placing the crown of roses on her forehead. Our venerated Mother noted on this subject, in her memoirs to her sisters: "Thus the roles changed, and the one who had so often crowned "Daddy's little queen" to send her, radiant, to throw her rose petals to "the Sacred Monstrance" was now crowned by this little angel's hand. That's what will happen to all of us, I'm sure, at the hour of our death. Thérèse told me that “we were born crowned”, it is she who preserves this crown for us. How could we go “crowned” in Purgatory? Little Thérèse will pin it so tightly on our heads, the crown intended for each one, that she will keep it there for eternity. »
Then came the Taking of the Habit of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, on January 10, 1889. During her retirement, she was allowed to pour out her soul into those of her older sisters. Moved by her dispositions, the little Mother answered her: “Dear little Sister, do not say that you are in darkness; it seems to you, but the eternal light shines within you. Without her, would you have these feelings? No. You fill my heart with joy, I would cry with happiness, seeing that my dearest little girl reserves nothing of her holocaust. »
The year of the novitiate was extended to avoid further opposition from the Superior. Our Mother recalled the fact to one of our Sisters who had suffered a similar disappointment! She herself was at the Chapter with Mother Marie de Gonzague, who was working on the large carpet of the sanctuary, when the latter spoke to her of the delay in the Profession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and called the latter for the warn: “I still see, says Mother Agnès of Jesus, this poor little girl going away quite pale, her face covered with tears. But she told us that soon, she had pulled herself together, and did not find she had too much time in front of her to embellish her wedding dress. »
Our Mother noticed more and more the exceptional maturity of soul of her holy little Sister; so his advice became rather an interchange of lofty thoughts fit to sustain his theft. At the beginning of September 1890, she addressed these lines to the future professed of 8: "Prepare yourself, my little grain of sand, prepare yourself, by not preparing yourself, that is to say by admitting that you are incapable of preparing and adorning yourselves for this feast of Heaven. If I were a little white dove, I know very well what I would do: I would go and lay my little head on the bosom of Jesus, not of glorious Jesus, but of suffering Jesus. There, I would wait, without saying a word, for some shining pearls and precious rubies to fall on me: the tears and blood of Jesus; there you have it, little dove, which will enrich your soul and make you so beautiful that the dazzled eyes of the Angels will perhaps find it difficult to sustain your brilliance; they will then sing to you: "In your dazzling beauty, advance and reign." »
“I no longer feel sorry for last night's trifle. My God, how everything passes here below! It gives courage. Oh ! a thousand times happy the soul which rises above all these vicissitudes. It's hard, but grace works wonders in the faithful heart.
“Child, thank your fiancé, because, from your earliest youth, he made you follow this path of fidelity. He does not comfort you because you are in his arms; you don't walk, he carries you; does the child in his Father's arms need any other consolation? ”‑ Little Mum of mine, oh! thank you, replied the Saint. If you knew what your letter says to my soul! »
The full understanding of their two souls was never to alter. However, it is important to underline it strongly: if Mother Agnès of Jesus encouraged Thérèse in her attraction to trust full of abandon, which was, in a way, for them, a family heritage, if she directed her towards detachment passing things and a fundamental humility, each kept its very distinct personality. The best proof is that the venerable Mother Geneviève of Sainte-Thérèse called, one day, Sister Agnès of Jesus, to draw her attention to the spirituality of her little sister, whom she found too bold, to be moderated; she therefore did not have the same fear of the elder sister whom she knew thoroughly.
This remark did not, however, frighten Sister Agnès of Jesus who peacefully left her little daughter to seek her own way, under divine action, without hindering her in any way.
And this is why the Saint will affirm, later, to one of her novices, who asked her “who” had taught her her “Little Way”: “It is Jesus all alone. No book, no theologian has taught it to me. »
She would not have failed, in her modesty, to insinuate the influence of Mother Agnès of Jesus, if she had considered her decisive, as she attests for her devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord. Thérèse had this discovery of covering her impotence, on the one hand, and her absolute confidence, on the other, with this attitude of the child, which the Holy Gospel recommends.
The subject is so important that we are not afraid to dwell on it. A decisive fact: Our beloved Mother has told us many times how deeply preached retreats upset Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
“During one of these retreats, she told us, I was a waitress in the refectory and I was struck by her expression of anguish; she could not eat. I then questioned her, and she confided to me that the instructions threw her into this state; I believe she would have died of it if the Holy Exercises had been prolonged.
“But you, my Mother, we asked, what did you feel about these same sermons?
- In general, I was very happy with it and had no problems with it. But, they were based above all on the spirit of fear, and our Saint, whose soul only dilated in confidence, suffocated by it. This is why she tasted so much peace, as she says herself, at the retreat of Father Alexis, a Franciscan, who launched it with full sail "on the waves of trust and love".
Allow us this parenthesis: Last December, an eminent Dominican religious wrote to us:
"Reading the Annals and Documents (November‑December 1951), so rich and revealing, lets us glimpse the real and profound influence of Mother Agnès of Jesus on Thérèse, but, on closer analysis, they only bring out the the originality of the Theresian genius. One of my colleagues, who had carefully read your two beautiful issues of the Annales, had exactly the same impression as me. Saint Thomas Aquinas owes much to Saint Albert the Great, but that does not prevent the unique breadth, the power of penetration and synthesis of his personal genius. The same with Mother Agnès of Jesus and Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. For me, the irreducible originality of the Teresian genius seems more and more evident to me. We could not explain our own thought better.
Let us return to the feast of September 8, 1890. We read from the pen of our Mother:
“She was cloudless; there was not even a single one in the firmament, where thousands of swallows were chirping from morning on our roofs. we had never seen such an army of these little emigrants. That year, they had chosen our Monastery as the starting point for their flight to milder climates.
“Was it not a distant symbol of all the souls so numerous who would come here, later, to emigrate joyfully from the land of their sins to the beautiful Heaven of fidelity, of the holy freedom of the children of God. »
We continue to draw on his brotherly memories. “A few words now of our great family grief, though it is difficult to paint a thornbush, when those thorns have turned into roses of grace and glory for us.
“In the time of the thorns, especially at the beginning, what letters, what cruel parlors! I remember that before certain parlors, I prayed this prayer on my knees: “My God, everything that is going to be said to me, that's what I want to hear; but help me! So my heart could be crushed, I had a secret strength.
“... When tact is lacking, very often, instead of consoling, one drives a dart, even with the best intentions; this is what happened several times, except on the side of Mother Geneviève. At the first moment of our great pain, when Papa seemed to have lost himself who knows where, she had waited for us all day in her infirmary to comfort us. We were so overwhelmed that we had not left the Depot, where Mother Marie de Gonzague had kindly installed us.
“Finally, in the evening, we go to Mother Geneviève. She held out her arms to us and said to us with tears in her voice: “Come, my poor children! Oh ! that the day seemed long to me without seeing you. She spoke to us as someone "who knows what it is to suffer." Then she added: “Don't cry, your father is well guarded. These are the words I heard this morning after praying for you and for him: “Tell them he'll be back tomorrow and he's got nothing. Which happened against all predictions.
“Dad's illness, with all the humiliation and heartache it brought, greatly strengthened our souls. As for me, I never once made the Way of the Cross without this word of the Imitation coming back to me: "No one has the Passion of Jesus Christ so deeply in his heart than he who suffered something similar. »
“Although it was fleeting, like all that is of time, this cross was not to last just one day, but three long years, during which silence grew more and more around the venerated name of the one whom we cherished.
“... Outside, many people made us responsible for this misfortune caused, they affirmed, by the excess of grief, especially at the entrance of Thérèse.
“I loved these words of Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre: “The end of your pilgrimage is approaching, you will soon see my Face in Heaven. I repeated it to myself in my troubles. At the time of our great ordeal, an ex-voto was placed before the blessed image, between two candelabra. This inscription was engraved there: Sit nomen Domini benedictum. FM (Martin family). It seemed to me that praising the good Lord in this way for having bestowed on us such a heavy cross glorified Him greatly. »
If we open the family correspondence of Sister Agnès of Jesus at this painful time, we find the same sublime echo:
It was February 12, 1889, that Mr. Martin had to leave his family to be entrusted to foreign hands, and this date remained, for his daughters, an anniversary of grace which they called “our great wealth”. A few days later, to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, on retreat, our Mother wrote:
“Poor little solitary dove, your thoughts are so mine that I cannot tell you what I feel when reading you... Let us trust in God. Until then, our poor little Father did not know what it is to suffer. It was because his time had not yet come; now she rang. As everything in this life passes with the rapidity of lightning, another hour will soon strike, the hour of eternal intoxication. But who will come to the banquet hall? Those who will have soaked their robe in the Blood of the Lamb, that is to say who will have suffered a lot. It is there above all that our poor little Father will be placed in the first rows, there he will be able to say: I am no longer where they put me... Everything has changed here, I am king and see how beautiful everything is around from me, it's an eternal spring. Little dove, will you always cry what will make you smile all eternity? Let the Buissonnets dismember, let everything crumble, let what is perishable perish. Let us only see Heaven, and let it descend within us by Faith and by Love. Soon we will go up there to enjoy love alone. Down here it's faith that leads to love
Dad, oh! Dad, he is dreaming, he is having a nightmare, a purifying dream to wake up soon on another land, in the real palace of the Good Savior The master of the palace advancing towards his chosen one will say to him: "Good and faithful servant, he it is time at last, enter into the joy of your God.”
And to his poor little Céline, who was climbing in the world, this agonizing way of the Cross: “Let us be saints, Jesus asks that of us. He needs some, he needs souls completely devoted, completely abandoned, completely delivered up to his divine whims. Let's open ours double, let him enter, or rather, force him to stop at the most intimate sanctuary. Like the disciples of Emmaus, let us say to him: Stay with us Lord, see, it is getting late. Night falls, do not venture during this night of sins, on the roads where the wicked pass. Ah! come, we will guarantee you of their features. But Lord why do you allow yourself to be prayed so much? How ? Is your company that expensive? And Jesus smiles showing the cross that never leaves him.... "My children many invite me like you, but few keep me, because many love me without the cross, and very few let me plant it in their heart. Yet it is only through her that I establish my home forever. If love finds me, it is suffering alone that keeps me. »
O Jesus! we want your cross! Enter and remain, here you are at home, it is another Bethany, where you will find faithful hearts. He is an old man with white hair, afflicted by illness and who nevertheless calls himself your friend, he is a swarm of virgins of whom you are the spouse, Spouse of blood, but always adored. Farewell, my darling, let us rejoice in suffering. »
Isn't suffering thus received the touchstone of magnanimous souls?
Thérèse could write, for herself and for her sisters: “Later, in heaven, we will like to talk about those dark days of exile. Yes, the three years of our father's martyrdom seem to me the most pleasant, the most fruitful of our lives, I would not exchange them for the most sublime ecstasies; and my heart in the presence of this inestimable treasure, cries out in its gratitude: "Be blessed, my God, for the years of graces that we have spent in evils" (Ps. LXXXIX 15).
Another separation would bruise their loving hearts. On December 5, 1891, our venerable Mother Geneviève of Ste Thérèse, after long years of suffering, left her little Carmel for Heaven. Sr. Agnès of Jesus, who had such filial esteem for her, announced it in these terms to her sister Céline: Our saint has just left us today, Saturday, at the first sound of the Angelus, in ineffable peace, but after such dreadful pains, that we all called for this hour of deliverance. "And now it's all over!" her Heaven has begun, her sufferings are forgotten, she enjoys forever. My little Céline, I can't tell you more, I'm too moved. My tears flow. Oh ! the life ! What do his eighty-six years look to him now? Let's become saints! »
Steps were taken to bury our good Mother Foundress in our Chapel, and her daughters thus had the consolation of keeping her for a long time. Convinced of her holiness, did Thérèse not define her as “an imitable saint, sanctified by hidden and ordinary virtues”? ‑ Sister Agnès of Jesus, with the help of a camera borrowed from Céline, photographed the features of this beloved Mother, and scattered many images with the memory of the deceased. She also had the consolation of writing her Circular, in collaboration with Mother Marie de Gonzague.
However, the good Lord had no intention of glorifying this authentic model of religious perfection on earth, and he was soon to entrust Sister Agnès of Jesus with the care of another Cause. But she liked to recognize that Mother Geneviève had impregnated with holiness the land where the angelic Thérèse was to flourish and that the unheard-of glory of the illustrious child was the reward of the one who had plowed the field and had buried the first sowing.
Our Mother saw her little sister added as a helper on various occasions: in the refectory, in painting, for example, but their common virtue played on emulation so as not to seek any consolation of the heart in these rapprochements; on the contrary, their absolute fidelity could lead them to believe that their former intimacy had cooled. And it was thus that Thérèse, recalling these memories, confessed to her little Mother, shortly before her death: “So much so that you had come to no longer know me. »
In appearance only, we hasten to add, my Reverend Mother, because it suffices to read through the relevant depositions of Mother Agnès of Jesus, at the various Trials, either in her initial notes or in those recorded in the Summarium, to see that She never ceased to fully understand the soul of her child, “to see it grow in wisdom and grace, and to keep these things in her heart”, until the day when it would be appropriate to unveil them.
This fundamental conviction that she had of the divine work taking place in her holy little Sister caused her to instinctively change her role of spiritual mistress into that of disciple, one might say. However, there is a devotion that she communicated to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, from the beginning of her life in Carmel, and she gave these details to one of us a few years ago. :
“I took her to the gallery, where there is a statue of the Child Jesus, and pointed out to her the beauty of this name united with that of Thérèse. Then I explained to him the beauty and the honor of still bearing the name of the Holy Face. I then spoke to her about the mystery of the Holy Face, as she relates it in the Story of a Soul, and I saw in her look that she grasped everything I wanted to say to her... she made me effect of an angel »
In her intimate notes, our dear Mother tells us the origin, for herself, of this cult, which was to nourish her soul so much: "It was Mother Geneviève who, as soon as I entered Carmel, attracted me to this devotion . She told me how touched she was to have seen, through the life of Sister Marie de Saint Pierre (of the Carmel of Tours), that Our Lord had chosen the Carmel to reveal his Holy Face to the world. touched myself. I found that Jesus revealed to us, through his Holy Face, all the love of his Heart and I looked for a way to honor this image. That of the choir soon had a small lamp and later, real illuminations. »
This effigy was the one put in honor by M. Dupont, the holy Man of Tours, and came from an edition much appreciated here. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus loved him very much; she found there the inspiration of her stanza “To live on Love, it is to wipe your Face” in her canticle “To live on Love”. The image is now in its infirmary which was already dedicated to the Holy Face.
“After a day when I had suffered a great deal,” continues Mother Agnès of Jesus, “I saw our Holy Face in the sky in a dream – that kind of reddish sky that one admires after storms. - I was with Sister Geneviève (this detail strikes us all the more, since this dream preceded by several years the beautiful work of Sr. Geneviève), as if on a deserted beach, contemplating this spectacle, and I heard a voice whisper in my ear: "Patience. »
It was at the school of the adorable Face, humiliated and bruised, as we have seen, that our Mother and her sisters learned to suffer, that is to say, to sanctify in the most loving abandonment the great paternal trial which reverberated so intensely in their souls. This divine Face, covered with opprobrium, was indeed the God of exile, but it was at the same time a pledge of eternity. Such was the thought given to us by Mother Agnès of Jesus:
“How happy I am that Céline has reproduced so perfectly, according to the Shroud of Turin, the true Holy Face of our beloved Spouse. “But, O Jesus, what we have not yet seen is your glorious Face. Oh ! when will we see your face in joy? for “we will not be fully satisfied until this glory appears to us. »
VII
Until now, my Reverend Mother, Sister Agnès of Jesus had confirmed her virtue in the shadows. Still very young, at thirty-one and a half years old, the good Lord was going to put this light on the candlestick. to Mother Marie de Gonzague. The latter looked at the young Sister with a somewhat mysterious air, letting her understand that she was precisely the subject of their conversation and, afterwards, in veiled words, she made her understand that Mother Geneviève had designated her as being able to to be Prioress in the future.
Very loyally, on the eve of laying down the charge, on February 20, 1893, Mother Marie de Gonzague prepared the election of Mother Agnès of Jesus, whom she sincerely appreciated and loved. The Superior, confirming the appointment, said to the elected: “Your holy Mother Geneviève will help you; you will endeavor to imitate the precious examples she has left you. I can tell you, without breaching my discretion, that if most of your Sisters have thought of giving you their vote, it is because they have noticed that you are trying to retrace the virtues that you have seen him practice. »
But, the whole character of the old Prioress could not soon allow the new one to freely assume her authority and her responsibilities; it would have been necessary to remain under her tutelage, against the general good and that is why Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus summed up in a happy word the attitude of her little Mother during this laborious three-year period: "You have imitated David playing the harp before Saul. »
For Mother Agnes of Jesus, of an impressionable and extremely sensitive nature, this position was sometimes tragic. She wrote :
“I recognize that this yoke was necessary to me. He matured me and detached my soul from honours. In truth, she knew how to use all the delicacies possible, without failing in prudence. Thus, believing that she had to, out of deference, appoint Mother Marie de Gonzague, mistress of the novitiate, she skilfully added to her, to assist her in this task, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, dean of her novice companions, knowing that the influence of this one would gently and judiciously counterbalance what the other could have been annoying. Her confidence was not disappointed, since, resuming the leadership after three years, Mother Marie de Gonzague, while retaining the direction of the novitiate - which she could normally have entrusted to Mother Agnès of Jesus - kept the little Saint there. as an auxiliary.
We know the supernatural joy felt by Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus at the election of Mother Agnès of Jesus, by the lines she wrote to her that same evening and which are published in the volume of her letters; her filial happiness, however, is mixed with a fear that she does not hesitate to express, adding to it the advice: "Now you are going to enter the sanctuary of souls, you are going to spread over them the treasures of graces with which Jesus has filled. Undoubtedly, you will suffer... The vases will be too small to contain the precious perfume that you want to deposit there, but Jesus, too, has only very small musical instruments to play his melody of love; however, he knows how to make use of all those presented to him. You will be like Jesus! Little sister, dear Mother, my own heart, your child's heart is a tiny lyre; when you are tired of making the harps vibrate, you will come and take your little lyre and as soon as you have touched it it will produce the sounds you desire... at the mere touch of your maternal fingers it will understand, and its weak melody will mingle with the song of your heart. »
On the first feast of Saint Agnes, January 21, 1894, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus composed and painted the little picture: the dream of the Child Jesus. She joined an explanatory note and a letter where she gives too beautiful an appreciation of Mother Agnès of Jesus, so that she does not have her place in these pages.
My darling mother,
“You have just read the dream that your child wanted to reproduce for your party. But unfortunately ! it is your artist's brush that alone could have painted such a sweet mystery!
“... It is you, my Mother, it is your virtues that I wanted to represent by the little flowers that Jesus presses to his Heart. Flowers are good for Jesus alone! Yes, the virtues of my dear Mother will always remain hidden with the baby Jesus of the Crib; however, despite the humility that would like to veil them, the mysterious perfume that escapes from these flowers already makes me foresee the marvels that I will see one day in the eternal Fatherland, when I will be allowed to contemplate the treasures of tenderness that you lavish now on Jesus.
“O my Mother, you know that I will never be able to express to you all my gratitude
for having guided me like an Angel of Heaven, in the midst of the paths of life; it was you who taught me to know Jesus, to love him; now that you are doubly my Mother, ah! lead me always towards the Beloved, teach me to practice virtue, so that in Heaven I am not placed too far from you and that you can recognize me for your child and your little sister. »Therese of the Child Jesus, rel. carm. ind.
How not to put in a diptych what Mother Agnès of Jesus wrote, for her part, in view of the Trial: "While I was Prioress, one day when the Servant of God had , which happened very rarely because it was she whom I saw the least often of all the Sisters, I was particularly struck by her advancement in virtue; the more she spoke to me of her love for the good God, of her desire to suffer for him and to live unknown on earth, the more I was seized with respect and admiration, because there was so much anointing and truth in his words. It seemed to me that it was an angel revealing its secrets to me. I told Sister Thérèse of Saint-Augustin of my shock, who came to find me after her. This Sister thought that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus would be Prioress one day. she is too holy for the good Lord not to soon give her Heaven. At that time she was very well, and must have been between twenty-one and twenty-two years old. »
For the birthday of her beloved Mother, September 7, 1895, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus let her grateful heart overflow again, in this poem:
To my dear mother, the beautiful angel of my childhood
Far from the beautiful Heaven, my homeland, This beautiful angel, oh deep mystery
I'm not alone down here, Called me his little sister
For, in the exile of this life, He had the features of a Mother,
A beautiful angel guides my steps. And I rested on his heart!
This beautiful angel, oh dear Mother, In the shade of her white wings
Sang by my crib, I was growing fast
And the accent of its melody, Already the eternal shores
Still seems brand new to me. Had delighted my childish eyes.
He sang of Jesus the charms, I would have liked, leaving the earth,
He sang the joy of a pure heart, With the angel flying to Heaven
From its wing, drying my tears And seeing the divine Light
He sang of the beautiful azure sky. Surround us both.
He was singing Almighty But, alas, one day, the beautiful angel,
Who made the star of gold and the flower; Instead of taking me to Heaven,
He sang the God of childhood Searching for virgins the phalanx,
Who, of the lilies, keeps the whiteness. Soared to Carmel!
He was singing the Virgin Mary, Oh! that I would have liked to follow him,
The azure of his vast cloak Contemplate his virtues closely
And the hill and the meadow Of his life I longed to live,
Where the Virgins follow the Lamb. Like him, to unite myself to Jesus.
Oh ! happiness without any mixture, But, on this foreign beach,
Jesus granted all my wishes; Without leaving the Celestial Court,
In Carmel, near my beautiful angel, I will descend near my Mother
I no longer expect anything but the Heavens To be his angel in my turn.
And now its melody, For me, Heaven would be without charms
I can hear it every day If I can't comfort you,
At his voice, my soul delighted In smiles change your tears
Burns with the fire of Love. All my secrets reveal to you
Mother, Love gives wings Of celestial and deep joy,
Soon, I will be able to fly Without you I cannot enjoy
To the eternal hills Leave you long in this world
Where Jesus deigns to call me. Oh ! I couldn't bear it
We will fly to the Fatherland,
On the other side of the blue sky;
Together, O my dear Mother,
We will always see the good Lord
With the unreserved support of Mother Marie de Gonzague, who really showed great breadth of vision on this point, Mother Agnès of Jesus had the consolation of opening the doors of her Carmel to her sister Céline, after the holy death from M. Martin, in 1894, then, the following year, to their little cousin Marie Guérin. This reunion of the four sisters and their relative, in the same monastery, could have presented some inconvenience, had it not been for the good spirit they showed and the detachment they tried to practice.
Providence, moreover, made use of this rapprochement for an end which far exceeded the cause which gave rise to it. We want to speak, my Reverend Mother, of the Manuscript of our Saint and of the work which her glorification later imposed.
One evening in December 1894, when Mother Agnès of Jesus was warming herself with her sisters Marie and Thérèse in the recreation room, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus recounted in such a charming way some traits of her young years, that Sister Marie of the Sacred -Heart says to our Mother: “Ah! my Mother, what a pity that we do not have all this in writing. How about asking Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to write down her childhood memories for us? »
At first, Mother Agnès of Jesus hesitated, then, at the insistence of the dear "Godmother", "turning, she says, towards the Servant of God who laughed as if we were making fun of her, I told her to write me everything she remembered from her childhood. As I was her Mother Prioress, she had to obey. She wrote only in her spare time and gave me her notebook on January 20, 1896, for my birthday. I was at evening prayer. Passing by to go to her place, she put it back in my hands and I put it on our stall without opening it. I didn't take the time to read it until two months later. During this interval, I noticed the virtue of Sister Thérèse because, her act of obedience accomplished, she no longer worried at all, never asking me if I had read her notebook. Once, I told her that I still didn't have time to read it, she didn't seem in the least bit upset. »
It was during this priorate that Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus asked Mother Agnès of Jesus for permission to offer herself as a victim to Merciful Love, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, June 9, 1895, and that she received, a few days later, on June 14, the signal grace of a wound of love. She immediately told her beloved Mother about it, but the latter, fearing that she would embark on extraordinary paths, pretended not to attach any importance to it. Thérèse never mentioned it to anyone again.
But fortunately, on July 7, 1897, seeing her close to death, her little Mother asked her again for the story of this favour, the exceptional importance of which she well sensed.
The little Saint had been able to closely appreciate the wisdom and gentleness of Mother Agnès of Jesus in the exercise of her office as Superior. She was not part of the Chapter, because then our Carmel kept the custom of never granting voice and right of session to more than two religious-sisters. On the eve of the elections which closed this blessed triennium, she confided to her little Mother her hope that the choice of the capitulants would fall on her...
During the election, which was particularly difficult, "Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was waiting outside, anxious and in prayer, for the result, and when the bell called the Sisters who had no vote or sitting, to the Choir, to to render obedience to the appointed Prioress, and when she saw that it was Mother Marie de Gonzague, she was as if struck with amazement; but her spirit of faith soon dominated this first impression, and the feelings of filial submission which she showed outside, she had in the bottom of her heart. »
It is Mother Agnès of Jesus who gives this testimony, and she continues: "At the end of her life, she even confessed to me that she considered herself happy to die in the arms of our Mother: "With you, I she said, there would have been too many natural human consolations. What the good Lord has done is well done. She even affirmed to me that the designations "Beloved Mother, Cherished Mother", which I would find in the notebook of her life (these are chapters ix and x) only expressed the feelings of her heart. »
We could attribute the same affirmations to Mother Agnès of Jesus since we repeatedly find, from her pen, assurances of this kind: “I was Prioress when Mother Marie de Gonzague died. In the last days of her life, with her cruel illness (tongue cancer) she was very sad... She always turned to me; she loved me as she could love and I loved her with a sincere and disinterested love, grateful also, in a way, because it is certainly to her, to the ascendancy she had over the Sisters, even on the Superior, whom we owe for having been received all four at Carmel, and moreover Sister Marie of the Eucharist.
“We surrounded her on her last night. Before her death, which occurred on December 17, 1904, she gave touching testimonies, with a fully contrite and humiliated heart, placing all her trust in the intercession of her little Thérèse. And she said to Mother Agnès of Jesus with tenderness: “In leaving this life, I only miss my darling little Mother. »
VIII
Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had her first hemoptysis on April 4, 1896, on the evening of Maundy Thursday. Mother Marie de Gonzague, Prioress, thought it more appropriate to let her sisters ignore it, so as not to alarm them, and the secret was kept until the end of May 1897. The patient had been put on relief the summer previous, for a little cough which the doctor did not find disturbing, and a real improvement having manifested itself, she resumed her regular life.
When she fell back, exhausted, the following spring, Mother Marie de Gonzague, very saddened at the thought of losing the one she designated among her daughters as "the best among her maids", very broadly allowed her sisters to approach her, either as a nurse's aid or to keep her during office hours. This is how the little Mother was able to collect the Novissima verba, which reveal to us in such a moving way, the physiognomy of the Saint grappling with suffering.
She was also thinking of the precious Manuscript that she owned, but too incomplete since Therese had confined herself to what had been prescribed for her: a reminder of her childhood memories, barely touching on her religious life. On the night of June 2, 1897, deprived of sleep by this preoccupation, Mother Agnès of Jesus went and knocked on the cell of Mother Marie de Gonzague, confiding in her of the treasure she held, and suggesting that she order Thérèse to continue , for her, her autobiography, so she can use it for her flyer. His approach succeeded because, the next day, the order was given to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to resume writing; it fell from his hands, before the end of the Manuscript, the last pages of which are written in pencil.
In all this, our venerated Mother acted with the purest supernatural spirit, and solely for the glory of God, as these lines attest to her "little daughter": "The Blessed Virgin made me understand that all the most beautiful lives of saints are not worth an act of obedience and renunciation. Even if our Mother, after your death, were to tear your little Life apart, it seems to me, if I am like this evening, that I would not feel anything other than a more powerful attraction towards Heaven. I would fly higher, that's all. »
In these last months, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, faced with the pain that the prospect of her death caused her dear sisters, lavished on them the most delicate marks of her grateful tenderness. We would like to mention in preference some of his intimate words to his little Mother, whom her humility kept hidden during her lifetime. Affection is intertwined with consoling thoughts, even advice, like this:
"If you're Prioress again one day, don't worry, you'll find that you won't have the same pains as before." You will be above everything; you will let people think and say what they want, you will do your duty in peace.
Never do anything to be one, and nothing either not to be one. Besides, I promise you that I won't let you put in there if it's prejudicial to your soul. » And as Mother Agnès of Jesus kissed her, she resumed: « I said everything, in particular to my little Mother for later. »
And here are touching outpourings: “I saw that you loved me with a disinterested love. Well ! if I know that you are my little Mother, you will know one day that I am your little daughter. Oh ! how I love you! I don't know how I will do in Heaven to do without you. »
She sometimes put a touch of humor to brighten up those around her; thus, Mother Agnès of Jesus told her that we were going to photograph her “to please Our Mother”, she smiled with a mischievous air: “Say rather that it is for you! "Little breeze, stop blowing, it's not for me, it's for my companion who doesn't have a jacket... (Reminder of a story from Auvergnats, without forgetting the tone!) When I'm up there, my little arm will be just like it's long, and my little mother will hear about it.... No matter what you say to me, even the most insignificant things, you make me the effect of a graceful troubadour who always sings his legends to new tunes. To be my “historian, you have to spare yourself - Just tell me if you will forget me when you are up there? asked our Mother -Ah! if I forgot you, it seems to me that all the saints would drive me out of Paradise like an ugly owl! My little mother, when I am up there, I will come and take you with me, so that where I am you will also be. - When you're dead, we'll put a palm in your hand - Yes, but I'll have to drop it when I want, to give my little Mother lavish graces, I'll have to do everything I can. I will like it.”
When Mother Agnes of Jesus learned of her first pulmonary accidents in 1896, her heart felt a deep wound that they had been hidden from her. The sick saint tried to console her in these terms:
“Don't worry, my darling little Mother, that your little girl seemed to be hiding something from you; I say seemed because, you know it well, if she hid a little corner of the envelope from you, she never hid a single line of the letter from you, and who knows her better than you, this little letter that you love? so much ?
The others can easily show the envelope on all sides, since they cannot
see that this, but up to you! Oh my little Mother, the letter is yours, please continue to write it until the day when Jesus will completely tear the little envelope.... »
And the little Mother let her heart overflow, in these stanzas which spring up like a prayer and a hope:
Child when you are above the clouds,
Playing you with peace in Heaven's homeland,
When of the Book of Life you will turn the pages
On me, always, lower your eyes,
See then if my name, in the Book of Grace,
To yours bright, has not embraced?
And if, in the future, I have to take my place,
Little Angel, by your side?
The good Jesus, sometimes, in his immense tenderness,
Of our little sins is pleased to see nothing.
Isn't it, sweet child, that's what he thinks,
In Him when we put our hope?
She accompanies them with this post:
“I wrote these verses to ease my heart. Oh ! how I love you! That's not what I wanted to tell you; now, you will only know in Heaven what poetry your soul puts in mine. Oh ! what happiness to be your little sister, your little Mother, and to feel loved by you. I thank you for all the delicacies you have for me... Oh take me some earth with you. »
And Therese replied:
“Only in Heaven will you know what you are to me... You are a lyre to me, a song, even when you say nothing. There are not two like you on earth. Oh ! how I love you! »
It was the part granted to the sensibility of a pure affection, which virtue had supernaturalized. But in these fraternal outpourings, there were declarations of capital importance, such as the definition of the "Little Way", the characteristics of the child, in the spiritual sense, the mission that the Saint dreamed of accomplishing until the end of time, and finally the express mandate given to Mother Agnès of Jesus to publish the Manuscript after having revised and completed it, specifying to her, for all the initiatives she would take: "It is as if I were doing it myself -even. Remember that in the sequel, and have no qualms about it. »
Can we show more total confidence in an alter ego?
The little Mother gave, either in the Novissima verba or at the Trials, an account of the death of love of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It is too well known for it to be necessary to reproduce it here, but we will only detach these two sentences from the depositions:
“What I saw shine in her more during her last illness was simplicity, self-distrust, humility, constant recourse to prayer and trust in God. »
And on the supreme moment:
“So it was an ecstasy, a vision of Heaven, but a vision that filled her heart with too much love, too much gratitude, she could not bear the “delicious assaults” and owed him the breaking of her chain. "...She was ravishingly beautiful, with a telling smile that seemed to say 'The good Lord is only love and mercy.' »
It was Mother Agnès of Jesus who painted the wooden cross intended for the tomb and she inscribed on it the name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, with the dates: 1873-1897. She had added these words from a poem by the Saint: "That I want, oh my God, to carry your fire far away, remember."
But the workman who carried the cross to the cemetery did not notice that the paint was still fresh and the text was erased. Our Mother saw there an indication of Heaven and traced, instead, Thérèse's promise which she had not dared to put there at first: "I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth."
Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart reports that towards the end of the Servant of God's life, she told her of her fear of not being able to console Mother Agnès of Jesus, whom her departure was going to afflict so much. Don't worry, Thérèse answered her, Mother Agnès of Jesus will not have time to think about her pain because, until the end of her life, she will be so busy with me that she will not even be able to do enough. asset. »
We can attest that this prediction was fully realized and that the little Mother found herself faced with a task whose amplitude would have exceeded any other activity than her own. But she faced it with an ease that filled us with admiration.
It was necessary, as soon as possible and discreetly, to prepare the publication of the dear Manuscript, and above all to obtain the consent of Mother Marie de Gonzague, who was Prioress. She accepted, but on the formal condition that the whole thing seemed to be addressed to her. Humbly, Mother Agnès of Jesus set about erasing everything that was completely personal to her in the first part, from chapters I to VIII, but we were able to restore it later. Then Mother Marie de Gonzague asked Father Godefroy Madelaine, Prior of the Premonstratensians of the Abbey of Mondaye (Calvados), very well known in the Community, where he had preached a retreat, to kindly review the text and give his opinion with a view to of editing.
The revered religious studied it for three months with the help of a colleague, as he declared before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, citing the letters he had exchanged with Carmel at the time, in particular that of March 1, 1898. :
“My Reverend Mother, I have read the entire Manuscript as well as the poems. I still keep it, because I want to read it again and it is then that I will mark in blue pencil what I believe should be omitted for printing. Everything, absolutely everything, is precious to you in this Manuscript; but for the public there are details so intimate, so high above the common level that it is better, I believe, not to have them printed. There are also slight errors of French or style: these are only small stains that are easy to remove. Finally, we also, from place to place, noticed lengths; for the readers, it will be better to delete certain repetitions that I will point out to you.
That is the part of the criticism, but, my good Mother, I cannot tell you with what pleasure, with what spiritual taste, I read these pages perfumed with divine love. »
Father Godefroy Madelaine himself admitted that on reading it again, the blue pencil fell from his hands and he confined himself above all to making the distribution of the chapters, a few corrections of form, but which safeguarded the substance well. Then, he suggested the title: “Story of a Soul” and pleaded for the Imprimatur near the Bishop of Bayeux, Mgr Hugonin, who granted it on March 7, 1898.
We wanted to go into these details, my Reverend Mother, to release our beloved Mother from a network of suspicion from which she suffered extremely concerning the authenticity of the autobiography of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. We have just seen with what prudent reserve she had acted, in agreement with her Prioress, also relying on informed censors, when she could have authorized herself quite simply with the absolute freedom given to her by her holy little Sister on her work. Moreover, when the ecclesiastical judges, during the Trial for the Cause, meticulously compared the original and the published text, they highly praised Mother Agnès of Jesus for what she had done and advised not to change anything, except to restore the fragmentation of the three manuscripts, which it had not been possible to present originally.
The first edition, of two thousand copies, was entrusted to the Imprimerie Saint-Paul de Bar-le-Duc and appeared on September 30, 1898. The book was sent to our Monasteries in place of the usual Circular. The reception was generally enthusiastic, and the volume spread beyond all expectations in France and abroad. Soon a second edition was needed. And how many followed her!
We do not recall without emotion the interest that our dear Mother always took in the presentation of the story of a Soul. Octogenarian, she still carefully reviewed the printing proofs herself and admitted no imperfection. Moreover, in all this concern for the finished, she was assailed by correspondence and multiple affairs, she did not tolerate disorder around her.
She had been named first Custodian, in 1896, then there was a question, for a moment, of sending her to the Carmel of Saigon, which requested reinforcement from our Monastery, her cradle; this project having been unsuccessful, she became Sub‑Prioress in 1899 and in 1902, she succeeded Mother Marie de Gonzague as Prioress. Here are the feelings of humility she presented herself to the Community during the first conventual chapter that followed:
"My dear Sisters, in this first chapter, where we all find ourselves gathered under the gaze of the good God and his Angels, I do not want to do anything but thank you for having shown me such religious and benevolent dispositions. , during these days following my election.
"If you continue them to me, it is not only for my happiness that you will be working, but above all for yours, for the good God never fails to give his graces in superabundance, to souls who see him in their superiors, whatever 'they are. For these souls there is no change of Prioress. They always recognize divine authority, as well under holy and perfect exteriors as through the most humble appearances. But, in this last case especially, what will be the reward of their faith! It was hardly meritorious for the Apostles to recognize Jesus as their God in the splendours of his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. The example of the good thief helps us and teaches us more. For having loudly confessed the divinity and royalty of Our Lord on Calvary, when he saw him entirely stripped of his beauty and despised by a whole people, he deserves, after a whole life spent in crime, to do here- down, in one hour, his purgatory, and to hear from the very mouth of his Saviour, these words all of mercy and love: "Today even, you will be with me in Paradise. My dear sisters, I dare address the same word to you. Yes, if you do not stop at appearances, if your faith is strong enough to see God in your new prioress, despite her unworthiness and her miseries, even today, that is to say from this life, we will be together in the sky. »
She ends with this other and pretty comparison: "If you consider me as the little bell of the good Lord, without looking at whether it is copper or gold, whether it rings right or wrong, I tell you that it is Jesus and not another who will respond to your call, either to instruct you, or to test you, to correct you or to console you. And the more you ring with a spirit of faith, the more you will have the right to expect a divine answer, the more also you can hope to see and hear eternally from very near and without intermediary, the One whom you will have called so many times and recognized on earth through the sometimes very thick veils of the poorest creatures. »
In 1903, to recover goods from the community, the superiors forced her to go to La Manche, accompanied by Mother Marie de Gonzague. During this two-day trip, Mother Agnes of Jesus was allowed to go and kneel at the tomb of Sr Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She notes about this visit to the cemetery:
"It seemed to me that the Angels were saying to me, as to the holy women who were looking for Jesus in the tomb: 'Why are you looking among the dead for the one who is alive?' There rests Thérèse's 'little envelope', with its germ of immortality." She continues: "While passing through Caen, I also obtained permission to stop at the Visitation (for the night). How happy I was to see Léonie again! I found her very fervent; she was radiant to see me. »
Inside the monastery, our dear Mother won more and more the trusting affection of her daughters, she also saw the presentation of elite subjects such as our late Mother Marie-Ange of the Child -Jésus, Mother Isabelle du Sacred Heart, and Mother Thérèse of the Eucharist, virtuous and brilliant conquests of Sr Thérèse of the EJ, who offered so much hope for the future. With what generosity she accepted the successive sacrifices.
The devotion of our Saint took on a prodigious expansion every day; the daily mail brought an echo of it and it was not in vain that Thérèse had said: "After my death, you will go to the side of the mailbox, you will find consolations there"; or again: “In heaven, I will obtain many graces for those who have done me good. For you my mother, everything will not even be able to serve you. There will be plenty to cheer you up."
Mother Agnès of Jesus had the benefits related, and the most striking testimonies of the Servant of God's growing influence, carefully copied, thus preparing a very solid basic documentation, which was to serve to establish the reputation of holiness.
But it would be a mistake to believe that his horizon was limited to the Teresian circle, which was already very broad. In 1906, having learned of a blasphemous pamphlet: "What God does and what he does not do", her loving soul quivered with indignation and she immediately composed, in reparation, a poem entitled: "Que notre Dieu est good, for those who have an upright heart” (PS. LXXXIII). There are verses of a beautiful strike:
He who madly will want to peer into your glory,
Will recognize, Lord, his illusory science,
Because man is crushed if he touches your greatness.
However, the pilgrimage to the modest tomb of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in the cemetery of the city, developed, as well as the “Rain of roses”. The Carmel was informed that in Rome itself they would be favorable to the study of the Cause; but, ill-advised on the preliminary steps to take, Mother Agnès of Jesus came up against rather harsh opposition from the Bishop of Bayeux. She bowed and said no more, waiting for the hour of Providence.
This came fortunately, on May 8, 1908, when our young Mother Marie-Ange of the Child Jesus, elected Prioress, hastened, the same day, to renew with Bishop Lemonnier the previously rejected request. This time, without any hesitation, the Prelate acquiesced and since then put all his zeal into constituting, with the most eminent priests of his clergy, the diocesan tribunal responsible for instructing the Informative Process. He directed and approved the choice of the Postulator and the Vice-Postulator and made himself, on occasion, the defender of the Cause and of Carmel against their adversaries. For these were not lacking, my Reverend Mother, to the point that Mother Agnès of Jesus was not afraid to speak of “the extraordinary and terrible persecutions suffered for the Cause of her little Thérèse”.
And that's no exaggeration. In the midst of these contradictions, our valiant Mother fought by all the means at her disposal to soften the hostility of some, to shake off the nonchalance of others, to forestall storms or appease them. Those who were too cautious sought to slow down her ardor, to curb her initiatives, but she had, as we have said, a way as skilful as she was pleasant to “sneak through” this maze of difficulties, and very often emerged victorious.
If the procedure was intelligently carried out in Bayeux, if the Servant of God knew how to conquer hearts, if Heaven multiplied the proofs, we must add that the action of the little Mother was also very effective and we knew recognize him in Rome.
Her depositions at the two Trials took first place in their importance and value: she was interrogated for twenty-four sessions, at the Diocesan Trial and, at the second, called Apostolic, for ten and a half consecutive days.
One can imagine the amount of preparatory work and the fatigue of sessions of exceptional gravity, strictly engaging the consciousness and under the risk of unforeseen questions which had to be answered on the spot. Moreover, all the witnesses were bound by the most rigorous secrecy, hence the impossibility of seeking advice or information from others.
To better situate the merit and action of Thérèse, in the environment where her holiness flourished, Mother Agnès of Jesus was led, together with some religious contemporaries of the Servant of God, to make, in a special deposition, a certain number of remarks concerning the situation of the Monastery under the government of Mother Marie de Gonzague.
This text has been strangely misused, which, intended to be strictly confidential, and moreover only intended to raise certain shadows, could only have the character of a fragmentary testimony. By isolating it, by stripping it of the multiple counterparts offered by so many other pages of the Summarium, including many declarations by Mother Agnès of Jesus herself, by picking them up, to emphasize them again, as if they were usual, facts spread over more than forty years, tendentious commentators have only succeeded in distorting history. The moral physiognomy of Mother Marie de Gonzague has been considerably clouded in the eyes of readers. Mother Agnès of Jesus felt painfully and sometimes to the point of anguish, how insulting such interpretations were for her dear Carmel. If she suffered more than others from what was authoritarian and whimsical in the character of Mother Marie de Gonzague, she was nonetheless the first to recognize the qualities and charms of this Prioress. to whom, on several occasions, she succeeded and whom she had to help to die holy. As for the failures, inevitable in any human community, some of which were the effect of illness, they did not prevent the Carmel of Lisieux, in the judgment of our Mother, from offering the world high examples of mortification, of prayer and zeal.
We have already published in extenso the beautiful declaration of Mother Agnès of Jesus: "Why I desire the Beatification of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus", where she affirms so eloquently that she has no other view than glory of God, by the confirmation of the mission entrusted to Thérèse to reveal to souls the Way of spiritual Childhood.
We cannot stop at the analysis she gives of the virtues heroically practiced by her holy little Sister; but, fearing that this picture of dazzling perfection might discourage some, she takes care to specify, and insistently:
“Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus does not resemble, as regards supernatural gifts, or at least their manifestation, most of the saints who have been canonized by the Church up to now. Apart from her vision of the Blessed Virgin, the one that revealed to her in advance my father's illness, except also the flame of love by which she says she was wounded, and finally the ecstasy of his death, I see nothing in his whole life, which is out of the ordinary. No doubt, many times she enjoyed a very deep recollection, but this state of prayer was enveloped in simplicity, without extraordinary manifestation. To think otherwise would be to change the physiognomy, so particular and so encouraging, that the good Lord was pleased to give to his little Servant, expressly to carry out his merciful plans of calling to his divine love, by his example, all the "little souls of the earth, who would follow her. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus loved her way of simplicity and would not have wanted to leave it, neither for herself nor to carry out the mission she had in mind. »
On this point, Mother Agnès of Jesus was very categorical, because she considered it essential; so she said again “Despite her beautiful aspirations, she was simplicity itself. And what seems great and sublime in her was necessary for her Canonization, which must give authority to her "little way", but the essence of this "little way" remains trust and humility in the most extreme simplicity, which his beautiful aspirations of suffering and martyrdom do not affect. »
A few years before her death, she had learned that a series of studies were going to be made on our Saint. While being touched and sincerely grateful for the interest that scholars were taking in her Little Sister's doctrine, she expressed concern: “What are they going to be able to say? she asked. Then, after a moment of silence and reflection, she gave us all her thoughts: “She was so simple... She never tried to do anything but please God. »
To one of her daughters who asked her this question: "Do you think, my Mother, that in wanting to imitate Thérèse, in order to be holy, we should arrive sooner or later, at all her perfection, all her sufferings, all her heroism? »
She answered with her usual modesty “Oh! no, I don't think so because I'll never get there. »
These words remind us of a very characteristic detail: when the text of the Lesson contracted from the Office of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was sent from Rome to our Carmel, and our Mother read in it: "... inflamed with desire to suffer, she offered herself, two years before her death, as a victim to the merciful Love of the good God", she had a painful reaction, because she saw in it the true motive of the Saint in her offering to the Love. At the cost of multiple steps, she obtained from the Sacred Congregation of Rites this rectification: "... Ablaze with divine charity, she offered herself etc..." then she recovered her peace, not without making this distressed remark: " If in our lifetime, we arrive at such distortions of Thérèse's thought, what will it be after our death!..."
Speaking one day of the prayer for the feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she said with conviction: “See, the Church does not ask us to follow her in the way of an ardent love, but from humility and simplicity of heart. »
After the premature death of Mother Marie-Ange of the Child Jesus, Mother Agnès of Jesus was re-elected Prioress on November 27, 1909 and, since that date, never left the office, either because she was kept there by regular elections, or that the Superiors have judged it useful to keep her, as long as the work of the Cause continues, until finally Pius XI names her Prioress for life, the day after the Beatification, on May 31, 1923 .
This sequence took us beyond two memorable events: the Introduction of the Cause in the Court of Rome, by Blessed Pius X, on June 10, 1914, and the Proclamation of the Heroicity of the Virtues of the Venerable Thérèse of the Child‑ Jesus, August 14, 1921, by Benedict XV, whose speech magnificently exalted the doctrine of spiritual childhood.
This first step taken filled our venerable Mother with joy. The main goal seemed to him to have been achieved, since the doctrine of the Servant of God had received the official approval of Holy Church, and what approval! “Here, then, is 'the way of spiritual childhood' followed by our Thérèse, recommended by the Vicar of Jesus Christ, she wrote to Cardinal Vico. Oh ! How grand, how divine! »
In Lisieux itself, it was necessary to think about the organization of the future pilgrimage, hence the need to enlarge our Chapel, to provide an enclosure for the Shrine, and to provide several altars for the celebration of the masses of the pilgrim priests.
The 1914‑1918 war had interrupted the work that had just begun and it was not able to resume actively until 1920, with all the handicaps of these post-war periods: shortage of materials, price increases, etc.
Mother Agnes of Jesus, so expert in handling the pen, was no less so in supervising the building site, in making decisions, the initiative of which sometimes seemed bold around her, and which later proved to be excellent.
Was it necessary to have recourse to civil personalities, to obtain a solution concerning the pilgrimage and going beyond the enclosure of the Carmel? She used, if necessary, the piety of a wife: “When I saw by which “Ahasuerus” I had to act, I quickly found my Esther! »
And we understand that so graciously solicited, the Esther did not know how to recuse herself.
In the face of generosity or support of any kind, she knew how to thank with the same good grace: “Thank you; it really is too much! Finally, to this excess responds the overflow of my heart and the promise to pour it into the Heart of Jesus, of Mary and of my little Thérèse. »
On April 29, 1923, Pius XI beatified his first Blessed and, two years later, he canonized her on May 17, 1925.
But the test had to buy these two splendid results.
In February 1923, an epidemic of infectious flu struck the Community and even degenerated into bronchopneumonia for many, including our beloved Mother, who was seriously ill. The moral anguish which gripped him added still more to the painful anxiety of his Daughters. Finally, she recovered in time for the solemn Translation of the Relics of our Saint, on March 26.
In 1924, it was Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart who was almost kidnapped by the same evil, to the point of causing fear of mourning for the next Canonization.
Thérèse had well predicted to her sisters: “Don't believe that, when I am in Heaven, you will only have joys. This is not what I had, nor what I wanted to have. On the contrary, you may have great trials, but I will send you lights that will make you appreciate and love them. You will be obliged to say like me: "Lord, you fill me with joy in everything you do" (Ps. XCI, 4).
And we can see that if the trials came, indeed, the promised lights were not lacking either for their generous acceptance.
In Roman circles, it was suggested that the sisters of Thérèse should come to Rome to witness her triumphs. But their humility was alarmed and Mother Agnès of Jesus begged Cardinal Vico to intervene so that they could be spared this trip which would have been a real sacrifice for them. They preferred the silence of their cloister to taste these unique graces.
This rapid glorification, unprecedented since the codification of the Causes of Saints, aroused unprecedented enthusiasm throughout the entire universe. In the immense human family, the humble Carmelite nun of Lisieux was regarded as a very close "little Sister", constantly attentive to the needs of her unfortunate brothers. Also, this apotheosis became the joy of all. And what echo did she find in her own sisters? In the heart of his little Mother? We congratulate her: “Is there enough to die of joy? How do you not have pride in such glory? »- « When I hear that, she confides to her sister Visitandine, I look at people twice and it doesn't enter my head! »
However, she was far from despising these honors bestowed by the Church, since she wrote to the same correspondent, before the Canonization: “What great things we see, all the same! But, she concludes ‑ and this is the fundamental aspect of her soul ‑ for me, the greater it is, the more I love littleness, the more I gently repeat to myself the words of Jesus: "Learn from me that I am gentle and humble of Heart and you will find rest for your souls. " Oh ! it's true ! we would have no true and deep joy without humility. »
She brought her daughters deeper into her thoughts. She addressed to the Community, on April 29, 1923, this “small homily, from a very small Mother, to mark a very great event. »
"My dear Sisters, on the occasion of the triumph of our dear little Thérèse and of her "little way", and of "her little means which have succeeded so perfectly for her", the good Lord has given me, for me, a little thought and I will communicate it to you, because "the treasure of the Mother belongs to the child". "All that I have enumerated and which is exalted by the Holy Church, is nothing other than 'this principal spirit' asked every day with joy, in one of the verses of the Miserere: Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui et spiritu principali confirmed me. In other words, it is “this disposition of the heart” of which our encouraging little Saint spoke and “this disposition”, she affirmed, is enough, I feel, to make us pleasing to God. »
“Little sheep of the Good Shepherd, I know you, and I know very well that you all have, despite faults that humiliate you, this main disposition, which is our grace, the grace of the fold of Lisieux. You may, until death, be imperfect and deplore it, but this disposition will never fail you. How to analyze it so that you recognize it in the bottom of your hearts? Well ! it is a mixture of humility, confidence, habitual recourse to God in our distress; sometimes it is even like a supernatural joy to feel miserable and to have, at every moment, an extreme need for help from on high. Finally, it is the truth, the true divine love, the true light that we must maintain and increase in us, by the practice of fraternal charity.
"With this light, my dear Sisters, we have, from this life, the halo, without suspecting it, and then we go straight to Heaven, in the phalanx of the little seraphic souls, those who see more closely the good Lord and who burn deliciously with his love throughout all eternity. »
X
H. Em. Cardinal Vico had come, as Legate, to preside over our Carmel Triduum for these Beatification celebrations. But, it will certainly interest you, my Reverend Mother, to have some details on another more intimate mission with which he was entrusted by Pope Pius XI and of which we have previously given the happy result. The Holy Father, to whom the Community had been able to make known his strong desire to keep our beloved Mother for Prioress, wanted this to be done respecting the rules of prudence and he asked the Cardinal to question each nun individually about it. With regard to our Mother, the secret was well observed: His Eminence was so attached to the Carmelites of Lisieux that it seemed almost natural that She wanted to bless each one of them privately. At the end of the interview, the smile bloomed on the faces, but nothing let guess the cause.
In the afternoon, the Prince of the Church returned alone at the cloister, to reunite the Community in the Chapter hall. It was then that turning to our dear Mother, he told her of his mandate and gave her the Rescript confirming her as Prioress ad vitam.
As soon as the chosen one understood what it was all about, tears came to her eyes and we saw her kneel humbly at the foot of the cardinal's throne, accepting with her usual simplicity this charge which was presented to her as the will of God and that of all his daughters. And the good Cardinal specified that the exception was very legitimate, in favor of the one who had directed a Saint so well and who would know all the better how to train others, and he concluded with a completely paternal joy: "This is is the highlight! »
For the Community, my Reverend Mother, yes, it was truly the crowning joy. But, if our Mother bowed before the alleged exceptional reason, she did not fail, with the spirit of wisdom which animated her, to warn us against this formula in the margin of our Constitutions, the prescription of which, on this point, seemed to him so opportune.
On the day of the Canonization, it is the thanksgiving that Mother Agnès of Jesus expressed in her maternal exhortation:
“One of these days, during Mass, these words of Our Lord to his Apostles, still so imperfect, came back to me: “It has pleased my Father to give you his Kingdom. And I said to myself: This is what happened for us; It pleased the Lord to give us this unheard-of glory and grace to have such a Saint in our House.
“Did he do it because of our virtues, our merits? No, my dear Sisters, because others can easily be more virtuous than us. Did he act in this way because of our holy predecessors? This is not certain, because there were also other very holy souls in other Carmels.
“It is therefore useless to seek the “whys” of this marvelous privilege. It comes to us from a divine predestination: it pleased God to favor us in this way, that is the whole reason for our happiness.
... "Yes, my dear Sisters, it pleases Him to love us especially, we have proof of this today, where from our Carmel, so humble and so hidden in the past, comes such a light for humanity, a such a source of graces for so many poor hearts quenched with peace and truth without shadows.
... “What shall we do now, to respond to such free gifts from our God? Well ! we'll remember how the little great Queen of that day responded to her merciful advances, when she stood down here for the humble little Handmaid of the Lord. And, after having seen up close his humility, so profound and so true, the delicacies of his love, the abandonment and recognition of his heart, finally the sustained fidelity of his fraternal charity, we will seek to practice the same virtues, always repeating with her, in our powerlessness to give thanks to God, to repay him for so many benefits:
“Pay off all debts yourself. »
“It is only then, in fact, that we will be quits, because it is only that which is called: “to return love for love”.
Of external splendours, what did our Mother think? She felt she had to spare no effort for their brilliance, since these homages paid to her glorious little Sister went back, in fact, to God. She therefore encouraged our decorations inside the Monastery and the Chapel, she called on the preachers of great renown, but, it must be confessed, it was often with pangs of heart that she heard her little Thérèse exalt on a note of which all the eloquence did not attenuate for her the sides...
A few years later, she summed up her private impressions in a poem evocative of these grandiose celebrations: “Ce que j'ai vu. »
The subtitle: "Glorious memories and sighs of truth", translates well the tone of the piece which recalls, in striking contrast, the splendours of the Teresian feasts, and the fecundity of the solitary immolation in the hidden life:
The cross of the Dome and its jewel,
The star that completes it,
With the festoons of the courtyard
Projected glimmers of dreams
But suddenly everything went black,
The shadow hovered over the house,
And we longed only to see
The only clarity that remains.
At the end of June 1951, without suspecting that we were a month away from the death of our dear Mother, we wanted to sing to her this echo of our glories and the lessons they left us. Not only did she listen to it happily, but she wanted to mingle her voice with ours down to the last verse, and with what enthusiasm!
If there was in her soul a sort of supernatural melancholy, even within the purest and most triumphant manifestations, how acute it took on when the jealous demon unleashed an attack on our Saint. It should be noted that almost all our great festivals were followed by these diabolical storms. Mother Agnès of Jesus suffered intensely from the bad faith of some; she acted to unmask and combat these artifices, bringing the truth to light. The infernal spirit roared all the more, and we know that during exorcisms on the possessed, he vented his rage against her, whom he felt so close to his great enemy: Thérèse. Despite this, she remained fearless in defending the sacred heritage entrusted to her by her holy little Sister. His loyalty was such that one sometimes saw his adversaries become his fervent friends. Her soul, we repeat, understood the price of the ordeal and we still discover, in her correspondence with Cardinal Vico, who was for her a devoted Father and protector, two eloquent testimonies:
“I suffered a great deal while reading this sad pamphlet, then I thought of these words from the author of The Imitation: “Jesus Christ had enemies and detractors and you only want to have friends and supporters...” So I was appeased. Besides, it is doubtless necessary for me to taste a little of the bread of humiliation on the eve of seeing my little Sister glorified and of enjoying this glory! God be blessed with everything. »
Same note in another difficulty that she had just explained to the Prince of the Church: “... This is very painful to me and to my sisters. However, the fact of the Canonization of our Thérèse is so great, so divine, that our supernatural joy does not suffer from it; I would almost even say that it is increased by it. Alongside such celestial glories and graces, are there not some humiliations, some sorrows, some clouds that force us to climb, to fly very high far from the earth? Yes, we feel our purer joys now that the cross has touched them. »
Fortunately, she knew that she was understood and supported by true friends: "I don't know why," wrote Fr. Petitot, OP, "I thought that like Mary, Mother of Jesus, little Mother and sister of Thérèse, more than once, the heart crossed by a sword of divine love and pain. You have written to me that I will be the butt of contradiction, you have no doubt been so for a long time and perhaps you will still be.... I beg the Child Jesus that he will soften with a caress of his hand the wounds caused by the jealousy of men. I recommend myself to your prayers, they are supremely effective with Saint Thérèse. »
And Heaven also came to his aid. We find this note from her, dated May 31, 1926: “I was very sad yesterday, after reading Father Ubald's review of Bishop Laveille's book. I said to myself: But will the struggle never end? Oh ! how hard it is! I'm afraid I can't take it anymore. However, I fell asleep very peacefully. During the night, I found myself awake for quite a long time, thinking of all these sorrows and of those which no doubt still awaited me. Then, immediately, as if someone had whispered it in my ear, these words of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary came back to me: “You will only lack help when my Heart lacks power. It was like a living word that stays with me and does me a lot of good. »
Thus strengthened, she could, in the record of her memories, confide to her sisters that she had intentionally omitted the account of these great trials because "if I recalled in detail all these crosses, it would also be necessary to recall in detail all our joys , deep, inexpressible, at the time of the Beatification, of the Canonization of our little Thérèse, in other circumstances that affect her glory and her cult; then we would see - with what tender gratitude! - that, despite our past trials, despite all those that we may still undergo, we must always agree that the scales of the good God have strongly tipped for us, not on the side of his rigors, but on the side of his ineffable sweetness and predilections. »
We can only subscribe to this affirmation, my Reverend Mother, because, if the painting had its inevitable shadows, did they not highlight even more the masterpiece of holiness that the devil tried in vain to deflower? , at the same time as they offered our beloved Mother the opportunity to give her full measure of virtue.
They were also the counterweight to the growing prestige that enveloped him, unbeknownst to him. Her quick and shrewd intelligence, her supernatural spirit and that ravishing simplicity which remained her personal stamp, were striking in circles in contact with her. The highest dignitaries of the Church professed for her an esteem mixed with veneration and, we are not afraid to say, respectful affection, to the point that some liked to give her this name of "little Mother", which became in a way historical, and which gave pleasure to herself. How many written or oral testimonies we could reproduce! How many times, in the parlor, have we seen Prelates, with tears in their eyes, contemplating the features of the woman whom Thérèse made her ideal, and saying to her with emotion:
“My Mother, you were the guide, the spiritual Mistress of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
“No, Monseigneur,” she hastened to reply; it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit.
- My Mother, pray for me, insisted the illustrious visitor.
Oh 1 yes! resumed our Mother, with all my heart, but you too, Monsignor; ask that I be gentle and humble of heart. »
For certain souls, a conversation with her became a grace of pacifying light; thus an Anglican pastor, moved by the reading of the Story of a Soul and on pilgrimage to Lisieux, nevertheless received the decisive shock which determined his conversion, only in a brief parlor with Mother Agnès of Jesus. Subsequently, it was always in the letters of "his little Mother" that he sought his surest directives.
We still remember this moving scene of a Vatican prelate, future cardinal, admitted to make a pilgrimage inside the Monastery. At the moment of leaving us, on the threshold of the closing door, as our Mother knelt down to receive her blessing, we saw him kneel down before her, refusing to get up until he had been blessed by the little Mother of the Saint. At the gate of the parlor, the same occurrence repeated itself several times.
It was even in Rome, especially in Rome, we might say, that Mother Agnès of Jesus was considered with this deferential esteem.
A French priest who knew her well wrote to her after returning from a trip to the Eternal City: “You are really in this center of Catholicity. You who prefer the solitude of your Carmel to everything else, you are truly loved and venerated under the title of "little Mother", of formator of "the greatest saint of modern times"... The good Lord is using you, because you are Thérèse's “little Mother”, realizing smallness, spiritual childhood, with a powerful and seductive originality. »
Pope Pius XI multiplied the proofs of His confidence and His gratitude. Each year, He intended for her one of the large candles decorated and solemnly blessed by the Supreme Pontiff at Candlemas. For the Canonization, He had His oil portrait sent to us, and how many other pledges came to us from His August predilection. For the Golden Wedding of Mother Agnès of Jesus, He traced these words under a watercolor depicting Him near the statue of Thérèse in the Vatican Gardens “Absens corpore, presens spiritu” ex toto corde benedicens. May 8, 1934. PP. Pius XI.
We knew from the immediate circle of the Pope that our Mother's letters were given to him directly and sealed. Cardinals or prelates confided to us that, in certain cases where she had to act, Pius XI took her side, defending her if necessary and declaring forcefully to those who were of an opposing opinion: “Mother Agnès is right! »
The Sovereign Pontiff sometimes turned to the Carmel of His dear Saint, to recommend very especially to his prayers and sacrifices causes painful to his heart. From there were born certain initiatives of our late Mother, where her very simple and supernatural “diplomacy” led to happy conclusions, for which the Holy See showed her great gratitude. "You have been entrusted with the true role of ambassador", said a bishop to her, but as a well-informed prelate of Rome wrote to us very recently and who most often served as her intermediary with the Pope: " She did charity, very great charity and a lot of good, in all directions, as in other times did great saints, also separated from the world.
We must keep all discretion on this part of fruitful activities, going beyond the spheres of Carmel. Her successes attracted many requests for her to intervene in complicated or thorny situations. Our dear Mother always had the prudence to act only wisely and after taking shelter under authorized advice; and she refused her assistance if the opinion was unfavourable. This wise reserve assured him all the more confidence in high places, so much so that his name in the Vatican enjoyed the best credit, and one could not have more excellent introductory note to open all the doors, than a word of recommendation given by her.
His Holiness Pius XII retained the same benevolence for her, since he deigned to send her about twenty autograph letters, and he encouraged her so eager zeal in the service of the Church, making wishes for all the holy causes of which she and her daughters were the dedicated promoters.
As soon as he saw a pilgrim from Lisieux, he immediately inquired with the liveliest interest for news of Mother Agnès of Jesus.
Is it necessary to say that the bishops who succeeded one another on the see of Bayeux such, to name only the last ones, Cardinal Suhard and SEMgr Picaud, testified to him an unlimited confidence.
You are not unaware, my RM, how much our Mother worked to promote fraternal union in our Holy Order. There again, she had such a direct source of the true desires of the Holy Father, that she thought she was failing in her duty by not working to make them known and to facilitate their realization, by all the means within her reach.
Our RPCarmes, our major superiors, have always shown her the deepest gratitude for the support they found near her on all occasions. She was in this the interpreter of her holy little sister who was given as patroness to the resurgent Province of Paris, currently in full swing. One of his former superiors expressed his gratitude to us by adding: "I have no right to extend this thank you beyond the steps of our country, but nothing forbids me in the secret of the heart, to measure and appreciate the radiant fruitfulness whose great instrument here below was, since the flight to Heaven of little Thérèse, the Carmel of Lisieux, entrusted by the Holy See to Mother Agnès of Jesus. »
NTRPProponent General was pleased on his last visit to Lisieux, to kindly proclaim our humble Mother "Prioress General of the Order"...
Well, so many homages of veneration and praise in no way dazzled our little Mother who passed through the midst of these greatnesses, as though ignoring them or with the simplicity of a child, heedless of the consideration with which her notoriety is surrounded. Only, feeling powerless to respond to so many confident calls coming up to her each day, like the most accredited lawyer near her "little Thérèse", the evening before taking her rest, she gazed lovingly at the engraving of the Holy Face placed before her, by formulating this prayer which was so dear to her, "pay all debts" And she said: "I have the firm hope that this single invocation will discharge all the debts which I have prayers to each other. »
A few weeks before her death, as she was reminded of all the glories of her little Thérèse which had reflected on her, she spontaneously replied: “Oh! I have never had any vanity! It was so true!
As the pilgrimage expanded, she limited her visiting rooms to the essential cases, because it was a real assault, at the Tour, to maintain the surviving sisters of the Saint. May we be permitted to observe here, my Reverend Mother, that the greater the glory of Thérèse, the more those who prolonged it here below retired to the shade and fled this celebrity, who would have liked to brave the gates of the cloister. .
They experienced what the apostle Saint Paul says: “that great patience is needed in tribulations, in distress, in anguish, but also in honors, in good reputation, in glory (2° Cor. , VI, 8, 9).
For Mother Agnès of Jesus, let us say it, the weight of the glory with which she was loaded was very heavy, as she sang:
"...all glory is a burden
Except eternal glory. »
and it is in all patience and detachment that she always carried it.
It was above all through correspondence that our beloved Mother did so much good and sowed confidence. In a few lines, she excelled in saying a lot, in a spontaneous style, imbued with the supernatural and with a delicacy that both charmed and comforted. She had such an ease in writing that she approached great people as easily as small people and appealed to everyone. Let's glean a few snippets from this mail dispersed in all parts of the universe and of which we have only too few vestiges:
"I can assure you that my holy little Sister loves you," she wrote to an elite correspondent. Only, she trusts you as she trusts me, her poor little Mother, and she doesn't hesitate "to play the little deaf"! Ah! yet, how well she hears our slightest sighs. Let her be indifferent and believe in her help at every moment; this will be the way to attract more hidden graces to us. " Or :
“I would like to answer every line of your dear letters, I cannot, but I have them read to my holy little Sister, asking her to answer them at length. She has all her time in Heaven, which she spends on earth. »
Then comes the war, with its anguish and its bereavement: “Everything that passes makes us look to Heaven and detaches from here below. One finds peace, during these hours of sadness and always, only by saying and repeating the prayer of the Pater: "May your kingdom come." Outside of the kingdom of God, indeed, all is vain. If this divine kingdom arrives, it is ours at the same time; only, it will always be true for us, as it was for Jesus, that “our kingdom is not of this world”.
She leans on the great pains: “Your maternal heart has been, is it still broken? Yes, but through this opening, the good Lord introduces a celestial balm, his lights and even his flames of love. »
At a time when she herself was suffering: “Your heartaches and ours are very precious, I feel it; they squeeze our hearts, but it is to make them express a balm of trust in God, which is true love and which we will find in pure delight in Heaven. »
The elect of the Lord were for her, as for Thérèse, the chosen portion of her apostolate. The respect she had for them did not interfere with her direct way of enlightening and encouraging them: To a monk who confessed his temptations to him, she replied:
"Don't grieve at the malice of the devil, he can do nothing to you at all, despite the power you recognize in him. I prefer to ignore theology so that I can say with Saint Therese that I fear him no more than a fly. You don't know what I find him stupid! » (It is always to this qualifier of contempt that she returns for the demon.) She adds, to her correspondent « But I prefer not to talk about him. »
At the same still, at bay, after his Profession
“Let that old devil scream, he has nothing to do with you. So much the better if you have to struggle, to fight, to suffer; it would be a pity if our Religious Profession exempted us from collecting these treasures. »
She traces this program to a young religious, who opened his soul to her:
“Sanctifying oneself is so simple! All you have to do is immolate yourself to the good God from moment to moment, think only of Him, do not concern yourself with what does not concern us, consequently, and immediately, Heaven descends into heaven. soul because the emptiness that occurred tempted the fullness of God. »
Another of the merits of his correspondence was a surprising punctuality; she would hardly allow her answers to wait. And we noticed this same remarkable punctuality in the conventual exercises, in spite of the very heavy obligations of his charge, both inside and outside, with all the unforeseen and inherent extras. It would have been irreconcilable for many others, but she did not seem in the least overwhelmed by it, and only noted with resignation: "How my poor life has crumbled!" Every moment there is a knock at our door; I can't do anything follow up. Anyway, it's for the good Lord, he likes it that way. You have to love whatever he wants. »
She took on tasks that she could have offloaded to secretaries, so we wondered how her little temperament resisted such overwork. One of her daughters had to stay in a clinic, she found the time to write her, every day, a maternal note, in which passed all her compassionate tenderness and a host of little details that made the exile live in its cloister; here are some of those posts:
“I hear from you every day, eagerly, and then I run to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (whose patient was the nurse) and to Sister Geneviève who listen to me with what attention and affection! If you saw this. And then, I start again with the Community.
“And here comes Advent! And soon, it will be Christmas, and, a little later, Heaven! because our life is so short, even when it is prolonged by an operation! " Oh ! what beautiful operations of grace the good Lord is doing on your soul, my little girl. Thank Him and pray to Him to continue. »
Elsewhere, she congratulates her child on the edification she has given to the clinic and adds, with familiar finesse:
“I am grateful to you for the good name of the Monastery. Now, little Thérèse is going to take down your halo and give it back to you on the day of eternal life, when you have really won it through humility, gentleness, all the virtues practiced in the shadows... And even if you have "fallen" several times, it will not matter, on the contrary. And the more humbly you have "fallen", the more the pearls of the crown will shine. »
We have just closed with a letter from mother to daughter, where the lesson is enveloped in charming simplicity. But it is appropriate to give the deep impression left by the correspondence of Mother Agnès of Jesus. A Superior General delivers her to us thus, at the news of her departure for Heaven:
“She is an authentic saint who has left us, full of supernatural wisdom, a richness of mind and heart, on which we were so happy to rely. What a loss!
“...We have wonderful letters from her, full of delicate feelings, intelligence, kindness, drawn from the depths of the Heart of Jesus.
“We mourn her like a real “little Mother”, so I realize your immense pain. Immense pain, in the sweetness, however, of abandonment. Who will find the words to express the primordial role played by Mother Agnès of Jesus, in this new “Pentecost” – the Pentecost of the revelation of the “little way” – of which Thérèse was the radiant flame.
“Who can say the part played by “Pauline” in the formation of Saint Thérèse, in the development of her holiness in Carmel, in the defense so sure, so just, of her true doctrine, which demanded of her so much clear-sight and courage. The Holy Spirit was with her, and her gifts of intelligence and strength. »
How many of our Carmels and, in particular, Mother Prioresses, found with Mother Agnès de Jjésus, in exchanges full of filial or fraternal trust, the same luminous support.
XI
All this chronological overview has already allowed you to breathe, my Reverend Mother, the perfume of the virtues of our beloved Mother. However, we believe we will satisfy your expectations by presenting to you in a more intimate way the beautiful flowers of this garden, cultivated with so much vigilance and love, to make it fully pleasing to the Lord. Ah! it was good soil, fully available to divine action and where the seed germinated and fructified unhindered. In this, Mother Agnès of Jesus practiced the advice of Saint Francis de Sales to Saint Jeanne de Chantal: “Follow the guidance of the divine movements, make yourself flexible to grace; God wants us to be like little children. »
She did not know the half-measures in the gift of herself, towards God as towards her neighbour. So with his love, which wanted no limits, and sometimes allowed a holy vehemence to transpire. One day, when she had just learned some sad fact against religion, we saw her, quivering, repeat with indignation and pain: “Oh! the good Lord is not loved, no he is not loved! At the end of his life, we will hear him say: "I would like to love the good God as He loves himself!" »
She could therefore lead others with full sail in this path of generous love, as she did first for Thérèse and her sisters.
“Our dispositions very often change, she wrote to Céline still in the world, but may our love not change and may the needle of our compass be invariably turned towards the south of divine love. Whether our soul is sad or happy, agitated or calm, it does not matter if we turn our eyes to Heaven, if we always trust, if all things on earth seem contemptible to us. »
Or: “Ah! what are all our feelings and beautiful thoughts? Nothing, absolutely nothing... let's just stand in peace, "with our eyes fixed on the Holy Mountain from where our help will come." Looking at Jesus and loving him, that's all. It is the Heaven of the earth, before being the Heaven of Heavens. »
For her, her great spirit of faith always kept her compass pointing towards this pole. Let us see her again during the years of her father's illness, consoling her dear Céline:
“I find the good God admirable towards us... His ways are hidden from us, but his goodness penetrates all the veils. There are, in our life, great storms which last for a long time! But, the lightning, instead of consuming, refreshes our souls. Blessed flashes that show us the nothingness of all that ends.
“O my Céline, let's become saints, it's not that difficult, nothing weighs down on love. »
After the death of this beloved father, she returns to the one who had been the devoted angel of her tried old age: “Yes, Papa is in Heaven! what a word, what an awakening for this poor little Father, and what a consolation for us!
"We are like him, we are blessed, and it is the realization of these beautiful words of Holy Scripture: "The just who walks in simplicity will leave behind him blessed children! Now we are crying, because we have nothing but tears to express pain and joy, but the good Lord sees well that the feelings of our hearts translate into a song of joy rather than in mourning. And this song pleases him, this song glorifies him, this melody increases the celestial joys of our dear Father. He watches us from above, and the Lord doubtless speaks to him the same words as the Angel Raphael to old Tobias: "You will rejoice in your children, because all will be blessed and they will be one. day, like you, reunited with the Lord. »
“Céline, thank the good God for the gift of faith that he has placed in us in such a large measure. We look at a coffin and we see a throne of glory. We are in the presence of death and it is eternal life that surrounds us on all sides.
“Farewell, my darling, I am the only one writing to you, but you understand our hearts, so united to yours in these painful moments. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to me this morning: “No, I couldn't write to Céline! And his ethereal and deep gaze made it clear enough that the feelings of his soul, too lofty, could not, in fact, be translated. Celine, ah! understand us! »
It would be necessary, my Reverend Mother, throughout the life of Mother Agnès of Jesus, and the sad or joyful events from which she was woven, to collect the outpourings of her soul. We will only note a few of them.
We were talking about a young nun, from another community, in whose vocation Sr. Marie du Sacré-Coeur had taken a great interest, and had been forced to leave her convent for health reasons: "How is it, said Do you think that from the height of Heaven, "Godmother" seems to be abandoning her little protegee? - These are mysteries from up there, says our Mother, me, that does not scandalize me. »
Nor was she surprised to be deprived of the invisible presence of her dear eldest, after her death. As they showed her some surprise, she explained: "I don't want it at all. Why would she do more than Little Therese? Would she be more powerful? That's how it should be. Why desire anything else? I know she's happy, that's enough for me.” And she wanted the same disposition for us.
“Do you feel “little Thérèse” close to you? she asked
The questioned answered that she was sure of his assistance but did not like it sensibly. “-If you had told me otherwise, I would have said that “it was not true”
I don't feel it either. How mysterious Heaven is. The conversation then turned to those who have left us and who seem to have changed their attitude towards us. The Sister cited the example of Mr. Martin, who loved his Mary so much and who did not seem to have relieved her distress during the eleven years she was immobilized in an armchair. "How true," resumed our Mother, "but he has spared us a great evil, sin...."
In her last years, she seemed tired one evening and this remark was made to her: “Does the good Lord really have to help you, my Mother, so that you manage to do so many things during the day? – Oh yes, He helps me, I can feel it; I'm touched, Sometimes it's as if I saw it. One of us then said a little mischievously: "Our Mother is having ecstasies now!" She went on softly: "No, it's in pure faith, but all the same as if I saw it." »
He was told odious calumnies against the Pope and added: "How can such things be said of a saint like him, so gentle, so good?" - And Jesus, interrupted our Mother, wasn't He also slandered, since it was said that He was possessed by the devil.....
We lamented, under the threat of a serious operation for one of us; she immediately stopped our complaints: 'We mustn't sue the Good God; everything he allows hides graces. “Or again:” You must never make the Good Lord look gloomy. »
We were in the aftermath of the war, in a period of full disruption
“Into what a fray poor France has thrown herself! she exclaimed.
It was objected: "But why does the good God, instead of showing his justice by chastising men, not make his mercy "overflow", as Saint Paul says?
« - The good Lord does it very well, come on! she replied. It goes to the bottom of hearts and wonders happen there, under its apparent harshness, believe me. »
We talked about the opposition that had arisen at the beginning against the project of the Basilica. Mother Agnes of Jesus concludes: “It will be like that for all our sorrows. The good Lord arranges everything marvelously. He wanted the Basilica up there, and what an incomparable site! He always arranges everything for our greatest happiness. »
In his exercises of piety, it is the same spirit of faith that animates him. “What do you think about during Mass, we ask him?
- Not much. I am far from the earth, close to the good God, in peace; I unite myself to the Holy Sacrifice in simplicity. Likewise for the Communion; I think it's a mystery of faith. » She prepared herself for it, at the end of her life, by this invocation, advised by Saint Marguerite-Marie: « My God, my unique and my Everything, you are everything for me and I am everything for you. »
Sometimes, during the thanksgiving after Holy Communion, a vigilant shepherdess, she thought of her little flock and asked herself: “What is going on in all these souls? »
She lived in constant union with God, without any external or internal tension. One of his daughters confided to him: “Sometimes it seems that you have lived with Our Lord, so much is the Gospel alive and luminous for you? And she replies:
"But, I live with Him every day, it's very true"
“Often,” she admitted, “I say, 'O my God, take me out of this exile...' It's not to stop suffering, but I thirst for the good Lord. »
This fusion of her being with the divine freed her from the human and she could say without fear: “My heart is all for the good Lord, so you can really love me. »
And however. this affection must not encroach. After a procession, a novice passing in front of her with the basket of flowers she had thrown in front of the statue of the Child Jesus, seeing still a few petals there, in a naive feeling of devotion for her Prioress, threw a few on her. Then, quickly, our Mother stopped her gesture:
“Flowers must not be thrown at creatures. »
In an original form, it invited us, one day, to constant intimacy with the Beloved: "There is a very small shell which has recently given us the lesson of inner recollection." By opening it with difficulty, because it resisted a lot, I said to myself: It is a very vigorous little shell; you wouldn't say he's so far from the sea. who could make me lose this drop of water sufficient for my union with the good God, while waiting to open myself up with happiness to the new waves of graces that await me at prayer times. »
A religious, unfamiliar with the Carmelite spirit, at the end of a retreat he had preached to us, had pointed out to him, as a shortcoming for many of us, the lack of method in prayer. At the following Conventual Chapter, our Mother communicated this remark to us:
“The preacher spoke to me about the methods of prayer, he told me that it was very difficult to pray and that many here were too vague about this holy exercise. It may be, and I urge you, my dear Sisters, while following your attraction, to help you, if necessary, with good authors. But, I confess to you that I cannot teach you methods that I do not know myself.
"For me, despite the distractions and dryness, we are never vague in prayer and we are always aware that the good God embellishes our soul there, if we have taken as a method and as a prelude to practice, in outside the hours of prayer, the religious virtues, especially humility, fraternal charity and regularity. Yes, my dear Sisters, if we have this nuptial robe, we will be well received by the Master of the house, at the hour of his feast of love. And moreover, this hour can be heard throughout our lives, because we did not enter Carmel to do only two hours of prayer a day, we entered it to find, far from the world, a solitude which facilitates perpetual prayer for us.
“... To be faithful to the lights of Jesus, which he communicates to us when he wants, that is true prayer, perpetual and indispensable prayer. The other is as if in addition; it is a rest close to the good Lord, but also a practice of regularity. At these hours, we go where Jesus is for us; he would not be elsewhere, because he too submits to the Rule, but he remains quite free to give us more graces at any other time.
“This is what I understand of prayer and which, instead of seeming very difficult to me, seems to me as easy as breathing in the open air. This is “the bread of our home”, it is our particular grace, and I dare to think that it was also the particular grace of the Holy Family in Nazareth, and of Jesus in his public life. “My Father never leaves me alone, he said, because I always do what pleases Him. " Oh! what a perfect model of the prayer of which I speak. So let us also try always to please our Heavenly Father, in order to always enjoy his ineffable presence. »
What she taught us in this way, she lived it, my Reverend Mother, and she was most faithful in being present at the regular hours of prayer in common. More than eighty years old, she was happy to be the first to arrive at the Choir in the morning to recite the Veni sancte Spiritus, and despite her exhausting work, she knew how to free herself for evening prayer. And she made sure that her daughters had the same concern. One of them asked permission to copy, on this hour, texts which were very beneficial to her soul:
“No, I won't allow it,” replied our Mother firmly, “it's better to stay playing the 'mummy' before the good Lord in prayer than to copy beautiful thoughts. This is not how our Mother Saint Thérèse understood it when she imposed it on us. »
She did not seek any spiritual sweetness for herself. They asked her about this: “Are you consoled, my Mother, during prayer?
- Not always, but I'm doing my duty, that's it! I take no other book than the Gospel. There are scenes that I believe I have seen and experienced, so I have meditated on them. Sometimes, I recite the Credo, finally, I am very happy in prayer, close to the good Lord. »
In difficult hours, she also drew comfort and peace from it. It was during the last war, and we had heard shelling. “Were you afraid to see that we are not safe anywhere? he was asked.
“No, not at all,” she replied. Why should we fear? Are we not in the Heart of the good God? However, I was distressed this evening, thinking of the war, because I believe that we have not seen everything. But, during prayer, I distracted my thoughts from all these sadnesses by reciting slowly and meditating on the Pater. Often, I nourish my prayers in this way; sometimes it's the Credo, sometimes it's the Salve Regina. If you only knew how that soothes my soul! Assiduous meditation on the Gospel revealed to him luminously the infinite treasures of paternal and merciful love. She expressed it spontaneously, in a letter to Cardinal Vico:
“It's Wednesday morning that I come out of retirement. I have few spiritual consolations, but it is true that I do not desire any. The time of this life is for struggle and suffering; there will come another time, when we will rest in delights. This morning, however, I felt a real feeling of love for the good God. It is by hearing the story of the chaste Suzanne, then the Gospel of the adulteress. I said to myself, “Oh! what goodness of God! He can't help but come to the aid of slandered innocence, but that's not all, here he comes to the aid of a justly oppressed sinner! So, whichever way you are looked at, O my God, it is only love and mercy; how could we not have full confidence in you? I am still moved by this impression while writing these lines. »
It is always this condescending mercy that she helped us to better understand, on Good Friday, in this exhortation:
“I opened the Holy Gospel, and I came across these words: “They were on their way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus walked before them, and his astonished disciples followed him trembling. »
“Isn't it sometimes our business to follow Jesus with trembling, when we know that He is leading us to Calvary? But, let us be reassured, this trembling does not offend him; what would offend him would be our refusal to follow him.
“And besides, if the disciples trembled, it was – with the exception of Judas – as much from love as from fear. They loved their Master and trembled to know that he was in danger. If, a few days later, all abandoned him, except Saint John, who returned to the foot of his Cross, it almost seems that, in his infinite goodness, it was on his advice that they had fled. Do we not read in the story of the Passion, this word of Our Lord to his enemies, in the Garden of Agony: "If it is me you are looking for, let these go..." Finally, He knew well that deep in their hearts remained an invincible attachment to Him. He excused them and still loved them.
“What reproaches did he make to Saint Peter after his sin? A simple look that provokes her regrets and her tears of love! Later, as reparation for his triple denial, He only asks him, three times, if he loved him. To the Apostles he said: “Peace be with you! »
“O my dear Sisters, let us ask Jesus, not not to tremble before suffering, before certain events – for this humiliation may be useful to us – but to always follow him step by step; and if our weakness is so great that, for a moment, we flee, may he keep our hearts united to him, may trustful prayer remain on our lips, and may we return to him without delay. Never doubt his love and mercy. This is what would hurt her heart, said our holy little Thérèse.
“I believe that St. Thomas alone caused real pain to Our Lord by doubting his Resurrection. Also, he alone received a real reproach, and again, how one feels the affection of the good Master. »
One day she made this reflection on the Pater:
“What kindness from Our Lord! He might well have not spoken of sin; but he knew well that we would always offend him, so he makes us say "Forgive us our trespasses" and he urges us to forgive others ourselves "Forgive us as we forgive."
Another memory, my Reverend Mother, which goes back to the days of our exodus to the Crypt of the Basilica. The threats became so agonizing that the priests, who had taken refuge with us, organized a novena of adoration, before the holy Ciborium, dimly lit, in this forced half-light where we were day and night. Our Mother wrote us this little watchword: “My dear Sisters, I repeat to you, go as close as possible to the Blessed Sacrament which is exposed, but humbly one could say. This morning, I remembered, seeing this little ciborium on the altar, a small locality near Lisieux, which is called: “le petit bon Dieu”. And I said to myself: "It's really here, 'the little good Lord.' He is not the God of revenge, he is a God whose very appearance invites us to throw ourselves confidently at his feet, on his Heart full of mercy and who has great pity on us at this moment. So let's go "to the little good God", who takes on this weak appearance only to attract us more to Him. Your little Mother.
In the last months of her life, she always expressed the same thought of absolute confidence:
“The good Lord asks only to shower us with graces... We hurt him by not believing in him enough. »
We have already spoken of his great devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord. The more she advanced in life, the more she attached herself to the painful mysteries of the Saviour. Hearing the Passion read the year before her death, she interrupted her nurse:
"I understand better, in my old age, the sufferings of Our Lord..."
By immersing herself in their meditation, she drew from them a juice of love, which she sometimes shared with us. Thus, during the war, on Good Friday of the year 1915:
“We have been dealing a lot, for several months, with the sad events of the war. Our compassion goes above all to the poor wounded; our heart aches at the thought of their sufferings; we say to ourselves, with truth, that they are our defenders, our saviours, since they die for us.
“We still think that war and its horrors are a punishment for sin, and we deplore sin, we would like to destroy it in us and in all the earth.
“Today, let our eyes stop on the only Victim who can destroy sin and its consequences, on Jesus, Savior of the whole world, who did something other than defend our earthly Fatherland, deliver us from a yoke human, but who allowed himself to be wounded and cruelly put to death to prevent us from falling into hell, under the yoke of Satan, to give us back our Fatherland of Heaven, lost forever.
“Those who defend the soil of the fatherlands of the earth do not take on their crimes, they are looked upon with admiration by God, if they are faithful in their hearts, and men always. The term is consecrated: victors or vanquished, when they die, they are said to have "fallen gloriously on the field of honour".
“He, Jesus, during his immolation heard, instead of praise, blasphemies and mockery. God, he suffered the test of being abandoned.
“Let us approach this gentle Jesus, victim of sinners, of whom we are one, let us sympathize with his incomparable sadness, with his bitter sufferings, above all with the terrible agony of his Heart because, in the Garden of Olives, what anguish for Him to see that, despite his death, many souls would still give themselves up to the devil, to his works, to his Hell.
“See what we feel when we are told of defeats for France “So much blood shed unnecessarily”, we sigh. “... How then did Our Lord sustain the horrible thought of the uselessness of his sacrifice for so many unfaithful souls? What a mystery these failures of a God! Can we understand how he did not manage to gather around him, in a feeling of inexpressible gratitude, men of all centuries? But no, it was written and Jesus recalled it before his Passion: “I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. »
“How misunderstood is our divine Pastor! How little we love him! As one flees it, when one does not persecute it. But, what happiness for us when Scripture adds: “I will stretch out my hand to the little ones. The little ones, that is to say the humble no doubt. »
The soul of our venerable Mother suffered from the rejection, by men, of redeeming graces. In an abandoned conversation with one of her children, she let slip this word
“How sad it is, all these sinners who get lost, and how the good Lord makes me pity! I was going to say... "Let's pray for Him..."
One day, already ill, she looked at Calvary, in our courtyard, and said to us: “The Cross... The good Lord has done beautiful things. Nothing can be said of the life of Our Lord, it is too beautiful...”
It will not be, in truth, to leave this subject, my Reverend Mother, to deliver to you this moving letter, written by our beloved Mother, on March 30, 1941, and found in her writing desk, after her death. It was thus addressed: “Sister MARIE DU SACRÉ-CCEUR
among the seraphim, in Heaven.
“You are in Heaven, my beloved Mary, and you are now penetrating to the most intimate part of my soul; Oh ! no, I did not lose you, on the contrary. But all the same, I want to write you a little letter at the end of my retirement, the second since your departure for the true homeland. (Have Thérèse read this letter.)
... "I always hear you say to me and say to me again, with an accent that I cannot render:" Oh how our hearts are detached from the earth! For yours, it's done completely; for mine, there is still a thread to be cut, but only a thread, and a light thread, it seems to me. I'm not going to explain to you why, you see it and know it better than me.
“Yes, you see it and you see me taking the garden path several times a day, when I can, and going to Gethsemane. »
(We thus name a small island in the arm of the river which crosses our garden, where we have placed various models of statues of the Angels appearing on the Stations of the Cross outside the Basilica, and a group of Our Lord in agony, consoled himself by an Angel.)
Our Mother continues her narration:
“There, I kneel at the feet of Our Lord and I press my hand for a moment on his Heart, saying to him: “May your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I intend to do this in the name of this poor universe, today upset because it has gone away, alas! "of Him who could give him peace"
“And a few days ago, making this gesture and looking at the face of Our Lord, I said to him, as if I had really seen him: “Am I boring you by always repeating the same thing to you? ?" I really wanted to have an answer and, in the evening, during prayer, opening the Gospel at random, I came across these words: "Someone touched me, because I felt that a virtue came out of me. " Oh ! that I was moved and encouraged to “touch” him often, so that often a virtue would emerge from him for the Holy Church, for poor sinners, for the Community, for everything.
“I return to my pilgrimage. Before leaving Gethsemane, I never fail to go to the angel who presents Veronica's veil. So I stroke the Holy Face three times: once in the name of Thérèse, once in your name, my Mary, and once in mine.
“When I leave the Hermitage, I head for the Stations of the Cross, which I do in a few moments. the great subject of love and gratitude for all the elect, of glory also for Our Lord. This deep feeling that I feel is difficult to express.
“I never tire of doing this Way of the Cross. Since my jubilee, it has been the consolation and strength of my life. Indeed, seven years ago – in 1934, on May 9, the day after my “Golden Wedding” – the beautiful stations were installed in the garden. It was certainly the most precious gift I received then. »
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We understood her attraction so well, my Reverend Mother, that we did not have the courage to hold her back when, even before Mass and in all weathers, she left, as fast as Madeleine on her way to the Tomb, towards her Way of the Cross. . She did so until she went down to the Infirmary.
Elsewhere, for the consolation of one of her daughters, very physically tried, she specified, in 1943, the way in which she made her so frequent Stations of the Cross: "At each station, I say, with a look of love: " Sweet and humble Jesus! » In front of the stations where the Blessed Virgin appears, I add « Sweet and humble Mary » then, she details her thoughts in front of all the scenes for example, at the twelfth: « Sweet and humble Jesus! Sweet and humble Mary who accepts these three hours of martyrdom with so much sweetness and humility, make my heart like yours. At the end of the via crucis it ended thus:
"Gentle and humble Joseph, gentle and humble Therese, all the gentle and humble of Paradise, make my heart like yours," and most often, thinking of her Community, she put in the plural: "Make our hearts like yours. yours. »
If she followed Jesus to Calvary, we have seen that she also followed him lovingly in the holy Gospel: “When I am in Heaven, she said, I will ask Jesus to show himself to me, as he was on earth. »
In the meantime, she adored him under the Eucharistic veils, and particularly rejoiced to see the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the chapel, rather than in the oratory, because then he could also receive the homage of the faithful.
From here, finally, she loved to contemplate Christ victorious over death, in the mystery of his Resurrection. She completes her notebook of confidences to her two sisters, revealing to them her feelings when the beautiful Easter holiday returns each year:
“Since I have been in Carmel, this “feast of feasts”, this “solemnity of solemnities” has always thrilled my soul. The great fatigue of Holy Week, of the sung office this Sunday at two o'clock in the morning (at that time getting up was at that time) did not diminish my supernatural happiness, on the contrary. This austerity is like an aftertaste of exile, which increases its strength and divine charm.
“The reading of the Liturgical Year, explaining with such penetrating unction the splendors of the mystery, has a lot to do, I am sure, in this disposition.
“Every year, at the singing of the Exultet, my heart rejoices. It's a grace, I recognize it, but moreover "everything is grace", even when you don't feel anything either at Easter or at any feast. The good Lord has his plans, we must praise him for everything in faith, while waiting for the Feast of Heaven, in eternal ecstasy. »
The little Mother of Thérèse was faithful in renewing, each evening before going to sleep, the Act of Offering as a victim to merciful Love. She completed it with little “rubrics”, she said – kind as all her manners – and with the prayer to which we have already alluded and she added: “Create in me a pure heart. Keep us, Lord, like the apple of your eye”, and his usual sigh: “Jesus, meek and humble of Heart. »
In her touching letter to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart in Paradise, from which we borrow this passage, she further notes:
"In your time, my Mary, in the time of your great infirmities, I used to say: 'The one you love is ill...' And I added, to touch him and show him that I trusted him: 'Thank you, my Jesus! » Even today, I make the same prayer for France. »
This fraternal message ended thus: “My darling little sister, I return from my retirement tomorrow evening. This morning, Sunday, at the time of Communion, I had a little grace that I am going to entrust to you. I felt my heart...so empty of everything created, that I said to myself: This must be a pure heart. It was like a luminous void. So, I thought that my request every evening was answered, that Jesus had really created in me a pure heart.
"My beloved Mary, my dear Thérèse, watch over me and be present to me, as you are so much today, until my death." I ask the good Lord to increase your heavenly happiness by reading my little letter. » Your Pauline, Sr. Agnès of Jesus.
We will not dwell on her devotion to the Blessed Virgin, who had come to “smile” at her too, in the morning of her life, and who had drawn her to her blessed Mountain of Carmel. Since her retirement in 1942, she recited the rosary every day:
'How can you find the time,' he was asked, continually overworked and disturbed as you are?
- The good Lord gave me tenacity, she answered. I feel that the Blessed Virgin is happy. She gives it back to me: she helps me in an incredible way in a host of things, especially in putting me above many small pains. I am at peace! »
Among her devotions, we will only mention again that which she professed for the great Doctor of the Nations. She had on hand, to reread them frequently, extracts from her Epistles:
“What a great saint is Saint Paul! she exclaimed, so ardent, so zealous and so humble! He does not forget that he has sinned, he recalls it: “I persecuted the faithful of Christ! » I really like my Patron Saint. »
It is easy to suppose, my Reverend Mother, that if Mother Agnès of Jesus opened her heart so fully to divine charity, she did not fail to practice the second commandment, which the Lord assimilates to the first: fraternal charity. She constantly exhorted us in this sense and, at the end of her life, we could have said to her, like the disciples of Saint John: "My Mother, you preach to us no more than that..." This was the conclusion of her maternal homilies and as her point of reference for a good state of mind. We cannot therefore choose from such abundant material and we take, at random, some of his thoughts:
" Oh ! how good God is to give us opportunities to practice gentleness, humility, patience; this gives us a new experience that everything must detach us from the earth, that we will only be happy, while waiting for Heaven, by practicing the charity which suffices for everything.
“This Carmel of blessing must be for Our Lord a new house in Bethany, even more agreeable than the first, since the Marthas are not jealous of the Marys, all of whom make themselves both Martha and Mary, to serve and love Him who dispenses to all of us, in secret, his most invaluable gifts.
... "We shall profit more and more, I am sure, of the invaluable benefits which living together gives us." If he is called a martyr, it is because there is a palm to be picked.
“Be sure that the happiest in the Community are not those who seem to have the complete confidence of Superiors, nor those who shine by their talents, nor those who have the consolation of following the Rule, nor those who have the attraction of poverty, silence, austerity. No, and yet the happiest are the most truly mortified, that is to say, the most charitable in their least actions, and even in their thoughts towards their neighbor, for it takes heroism to reach this ideal of charity, rewarded with the purest happiness. »
She reminded us of the example of our Thérèse: "When our little Saint went to recreation, she said, it was not to recreate herself, it was to recreate her Beloved, through her fraternal charity, to accomplish thus his new Commandment and deserve to love him ever more, to infinity. Then, a divine happiness, all the more profound as her abnegation was greater and more hidden, entered her soul, or to put it better, it was she who entered, from this life, into the joy of her Lord. »
One does not arrive at this integral charity towards one's neighbor without having stripped oneself:
“If you knew, Mother Agnès of Jesus confided, how my heart is detached from the earth and in full truth, it seems to me, trying to let go of many things, almost everything, so as not to slow down its flight towards the good God.
“All that happens is nothing, nothing... oh! this word does me good. »
But these hours of light were also followed by hours of darkness and “of temptation, even against trust in God, to the point of experiencing inexpressible anguish”, she would say. Then she moaned:
“Sometimes I am reduced to “sighing” these words of the Imitation: “See, Lord, my impotence and my fragility, which everything manifests in your eyes. And then, O marvel of mercy, I feel as happy and peaceful as in the first case, sometimes even more so. »
To encourage us in this destitution that is the distress of the soul, she invited us to consider Jesus, in his Passion, a prey to depression, to the most extreme anguish:
“Poor Jesus, she concluded, he is nevertheless helped without feeling it, there can be no doubt about it, but it is as if in secret, as if by stealth, just enough to give him the strength to go all the way. without failing.
“At the foot of the Cross, let us say to our beloved Spouse, our hearts filled with the greatest gratitude: “I thank you, O good Jesus, for not having wanted to ask your Father, these twelve legions of angels who, you well knew, would have come at once, either to deliver you, or to soften your Passion. I thank you for not having said, while undergoing all your pains and humiliations, that your Heart overflowed with joy. No, you did not want to bring about the salvation of the world in transports of joy; then something would have been missing from your painful Passion. What an encouragement for us. Ourselves, when the grace of consolation uplifts us, we have impulses, we would go to martyrdom with enthusiasm; but often, not to say always... what we can do best and most meritorious is to repeat with the help of another grace, no less precious, this verse of the Magnificat: "My spirit is delighted with joy in God my Saviour", to feel weak, inconstant, unable to accept joyfully the slightest suffering, the slightest humiliation. »
She gave us, another time, this comparison, in connection with spiritual poverty. If the soul, in absolute dryness, retains a straight and sustained will to do its best, above all through the practice of fraternal charity, "it resembles, she explained, the widow of Scripture who received Elijah in her house, and whose charity was so marvelously rewarded. However, the Prophet does not bring home the abundance of all goods, but what is sufficient. And how can we think that it is not the best for the earth, when we hear him say to this woman, with so much solemnity: Thus says the God of Israel: this little flour you have left will not fail you, and this little oil will not diminish until the day the Lord causes rain to fall on the earth. Also, she looked to the Lord for support from hour to hour.
“If the good Lord does not put in your hand, she wrote, the little coin of virtue at the time of need, one cannot pay, one cannot pass without putting one's nose on the ground. »
On the evening of a painful day, when she feared she had lacked virtue, the Blessed Virgin obtained for her a grace of light so soothing that she then wrote:
"From this grace I have remained an interior assurance that all the delights of Heaven will be given to us one day, for nothing, on the condition of being humble of heart, never leaning on any of our works, and practice fraternal charity. »
And here we are quite naturally led, my Reverend Mother, to talk to you again about this virtue of humility - which we saw so much implored by our late Mother - as the grace of graces, and of which she spread, without knowing it, penetrating scent. On this favorite theme, his thoughts had an inexpressible flavor. Literally, she lived on it.
She invites her sister Léonie to meet with her and their other sisters, at the Crèche, laden with all sorts of gifts. Then she immediately corrects:
“But, after all, if we walk together, before entering the stable, the richer will give to the poorer and the baby Jesus, seeing us equally loaded, will give us the same smile. Ah! I'm talking nonsense, let's just arrive with our hearts loaded with humility, love and trust, that is to say, what Jesus came to look for on earth, the rest is equal or almost equal to him, he does not need our gifts, only our love. »
They showed him admiration for his power of work, beyond his eighty years: “There is nothing in me to admire. It is Jesus who must be admired. If there is something good in me, it is He who put it. »
She returned to this conviction by telling
“Sometimes ago I went to the garden and you know the hollow formed by the joined hands of Jesus in agony; I put my hand in this hollow and pulled out several dead leaves that couldn't be seen. So I said to myself: This is my life! dead leaves! But, in the hands of Jesus, they will turn into ripe fruit for eternal life. And it is by holding these ripe fruits that I will present myself, or rather that Jesus will present me to his heavenly Father on the day of my death. “This true story is also your marvelous story. Make it the object of a little lightning meditation, you will come out of it even more humble of heart. »
She thus knew, at each step, to draw light from the smallest incidents or from nature which, for her, truly sang of the Creator's love. Let's still taste the lessons she draws from broken glass and weeds:
“I was recently looking at a broken window; the break exposed to the sun, it was only rays to dazzle and I thought it was the image of the humility that the lack of physical strength often gives us. “Our miseries are like weeds which, bad as they are, produce pretty flowers. Do we dislike the little daisies in the courtyard lawn? Yet they are born of weeds and see how we look at them with happiness. The good Lord is like us, and lest by pulling out our weeds completely, we have less humility, less distrust of ourselves and recourse to Him at all times, he says to his angels , as in the parable of the tares and the good grain: "Let both grow until the time of harvest", that is, let humility grow which cannot germinate without the humiliation produced by the recognized weakness and infirmity of my poor little creatures. »
It is a face of the same kind that she borrowed another time, the day after her feast, when the prioral table had been decorated with flowers in the refectory: "A thing, very small, came to remind me of the gentle character of the good Lord . It's a sprig of mistletoe, placed close to me on the table in the refectory. I thought to myself: Here is a little plant that is in the place of honor today; it is, however, only a parasite, a weed, but all the same, how well it can be forgiven, for it is very graceful and very original, with its angles and its flowers which are like fine pearls. “So, I thought of the faults that we all have, more or less and which are also very well forgiven, when the soul is deeply humble. »
Despite this, our Mother had some difficulty in bearing the deterioration of things, and was affected almost exaggeratedly, dare we say. Our constructions resting on very humid soil are often, despite all the precautions taken, attacked by saltpetre. After the major repairs that preceded the Beatification, Mother Agnès of Jesus tried to keep the molded bases of the stucco-stone pillars, buttresses of our chapel, in their new aspect and, armed with a brush, a brush or a rag, we saw her, for years, dust them gently. Her solicitude was powerless, but from the failure she learned this lesson, which she shared with us, as we approached a Pentecost feast: "For seven years, I have tried to keep the pillars of the Choir cloister clean, without being able to get there. I brush, I wipe tirelessly and, little by little, as a result of all my care, I still see the moldings patina, the dust sticking together, finally the saltpetre eating away at the stucco.
“I reflected, and I saw that it was a picture of my helplessness for all good. Then, the humble prayer of the Veni Soncte came back to me: “Without your help, O my God, there is nothing in man, nothing that is innocent. So wash yourself that which is unclean. The correction of our faults, the sanctification of our soul are truly the unique work of the Holy Spirit, who devotes himself to it all the more when this soul is thoroughly convinced of its total impotence and nevertheless, with perseverance, his poor little efforts, which he takes into account with so much mercy and love. »
And she did not miss this opportunity to add this other opinion:
“Let us now transfer these lights to our neighbour, and when we cannot help but see his faults, let us be no more surprised at them than at our own. Let us think that this dear neighbor does his best, too, the small cleaning of the pillars of his interior cloister, that he often sighs when he sees it getting dirty despite all his efforts and that, turning to the good Lord, humbling himself, imploring his help, recognizing that everything in him is defiled, he is very pleasing to the sanctifying and supreme Comforter Spirit, who dwells in him with delight. »
She specified about these blessed invocations that we have already collected on her lips:
"When we say, when we sigh: 'Sweet and humble Jesus', this aspiration draws his gentle and humble Heart within us and it is He who manifests himself outside, around us, through us, without our noticing it. . Oh ! How simple is the love of the good God! it is not what many souls imagine. »
What a beautiful definition is this one:
“Gentleness and humility of heart is the secret of perfect love. »
The radiance of humility “is like a luminous shadow” said our Mother. And this is why Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus could, in all the sincerity of her heart, write to Mother Agnès of Jesus:
“If (little Mother) doesn't know what she is, I know it well and I love her! Oh yes ! but how pure is my affection! it is that of a child who admires her mother's humility, you do me more good than all the books in the world. »
He who recognizes himself as poor and miserable, easily relies on the power of others.
And how much better still on the omnipotence of an infinitely good God. Our Mother with her great spirit of faith never deviated from this path of abandonment. She wrote to her sister Céline, in their common filial ordeal: Don't you find, like me, that it is sweeter to remember the days of mourning and tears than the days of joy? Our hearts are not made for joy, even the purest! they are made only for the joy of heaven, and suffering alone satisfies them on earth. Dear Céline, how sweet it is also not to know what Jesus has in store for us in the future... Yes, it is is a sweetness and a great sweetness of living abandoned from day to day, in uselessness, if he wants! And what use is there in this world if not the love of God alone. »
To the same again, still about their dear father:
“We are on the eve of some event. Oh! isn't that how we want to know? It seems to me that the Good Jesus is very happy that we make him the sacrifice of this desire, because then it is to abandon oneself and abandon everything one loves to his love on which one can count so much! »
In 1948, at the time of the sudden death of one of our Mothers, her Sub-prioress who was her great support, she said to us: “I noticed especially at the office, these words of the high priest Héli: “ It's the Lord! let him do what is good in his eyes. »
In a moment of interior abandonment, very shortly before her death, she did not know what to say: "I am tried....I do not feel the good God as much as I would like, but I believe and I abandon myself , he is all mine, and I am all his! »
She wrote the day after Gaudete Sunday, in 1939:
“We should undoubtedly always rejoice in the Lord, as the Holy Church told us again yesterday at Mass. In the bottom of our hearts which are entirely with the Good God, it is well that. But the ugly terrestrial siren comes to roar in our ears from time to time, and then we tremble, we are afraid, we are anguished. This happened to Jesus in the Garden of Agony; so we should not be surprised by these sadnesses, they are very meritorious. »
We know how much his soul dreamed of eternity. And yet, to a sister who showed her her intense desire for Heaven, she did not know what to answer: “For me, it is abandonment! »
One of his daughters was seriously ill and undergoing surgery; our Mother tries to comfort her: “I haven't stopped thinking about you today and this thought was a real prayer to obtain strength for you in your ordeal, because it is already long and hard. Oh! I don't like to write this harsh word, because the good Lord is only sweetness and we must think that everything he sends us and which seems harsh, will be only sweetness for us all eternity. It doesn't matter, the thought of Heaven is very necessary to us; our time will come to taste bliss. »
It resumes the following day:
“Perfect surrender isn't that easy! Besides, we cannot give it to ourselves, but the good Lord is obliged to give it to us, when we humbly ask Him. »
Another time, she amused her little patient, in a more familiar tone; it was May 13, the anniversary of the healing of little Thérèse by the Virgin of the Smile:
"My first thought this morning was to pray to the Blessed Virgin to give you a beautiful smile, like our Thérèse in the past, and that this smile heal you, but I asked for a smile even more than a cure, because " Beware of everything! » of everything that would not enter into the will of the good God; and since it is hidden from us, "it is better to abandon everything." Long live Jesus, long live his Cross! »
She makes a few puns, in a letter to her sister Léonie, who had just taught her that she wore glasses, but the supernatural lesson is no less profound on the value of the present moment:
"It's not too many four eyes to look forward and backward in our lives. Ahead, the beautiful sky that awaits us; behind, all the graces that the good Lord has given us during these years that we have spent under his gaze, under his divine protection. Not too many eyes either to take a close look at the beautiful present given to us; this present of the present moment which is destined to make our eternal present; for as we shall have taken it with all its riches, so shall we take our Heaven. If we drop some of these riches on earth, without profiting from them, it will not go up to Heaven; too bad for us! You see, my beloved little sister, the sermon that earned you your pair of glasses. And yet, your little sister-mother is not a preacher, it's not in her character. You complain that your good Mother is not cured by Thérèse. Me, I prefer that she works miracles elsewhere than at home. That in us, she enables us to walk fully in her path of trust and love; I do not ask more of him and I find that I have everything »
And this everything, my Reverend Mother, must it be demonstrated that she possessed it fully, according to her desire? This emerges so clearly from what we have already quoted. Here are only a few new testimonies which, in various forms, hide the same spirit of spiritual childhood. In an exhortation, she remarked:
“The constraints of religious life and the intimate work of our perfection may sometimes seem difficult to us. Let us think then that our gentle Savior promises us the Holy Spirit under the title of “Comforter”. He therefore knows very well that we are weak, that our exile is very painful, that virtue, even the strongest, has its shortcomings, that often everything around us seems to contribute to making us shed tears... He knows all this and then, "seeing that we no longer have the strength to row, because the wind is against us, He comes to us in the night of trial, He revives us with good inspirations, He restores peace and joy in our soul by this ray of grace and love, which is none other than the promised Comforter, the Holy Spirit. »
This is how she understands divine leniency: “I think the good Lord is worthy of everything; that it is very little what we give him, but that he is happy all the same, as if we gave him the universe. »
And she counts, for herself, on this divine magnanimity:
"How I would like to go straight to Heaven," said a Sister to her.
"I don't care for me," she replied. I will find whatever the good Lord will do.
- It's not surprising that you think that, resumed her child, you, my little Mother, you will go to Heaven straight away.
"I hope so," she replied simply. It should be so. Have you noticed that we ask for this grace every day in the hymn of None
“Give us this evening light
Who guards our life without decline,
And that the price of a holy death,
Eternal glory follows her without delay..."
This personal hope became a formal certainty when it was a question of her holy little Sister, and she underlined it in these terms:
“I would put my hand in the fire to affirm that little Thérèse went straight to Heaven; I don't even want people to say that she did a second of Purgatory. Without this belief, the "little Way" is destroyed from top to bottom; it has to rest on that. »
But let us return to her confidence for the present life Again to her patient far from Carmel, she throws out this humorous word:
"That I'm glad you're so much better and ate some chicken.
Above all, eat a full plate of confidence, my little girl, you will never be able to get indigestion from it; it will serve you, on the contrary, to digest "all the pieces of this life", as Saint Jeanne de Chantal said. »
The next day, to emphasize the same idea, she is not afraid to use a pun. She writes again to the dear operated:
"We're going to take the wires off you!" Only, if your sons are taken away from you, your sons cannot be taken away from you... You don't understand a thing? It is written the same; it's a guess. Are you there? No, my little girl, we cannot take "your sons" away from you, the poor sinners, the souls that you have saved in your ordeal, by your abandonment, your trust.
We can still see that everything was matter for him to draw from the supernatural, as the bee gathers juice from all flowers. But, with what predilection did Mother Agnès of Jesus draw from the Teresian source, so that her honey took on all its sweetness!
At the beginning of her religious life, she had felt very strongly inclined towards extraordinary penances, or at least of supererogation, and she involved Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who was happy about it. But she was led to change her way of seeing things.
We have in this regard, my Reverend Mother, indisputable details on the thought of our venerable Mother, because, on various occasions, and to avoid any ambiguity, she insisted on developing it personally. Here is what we found from his dictation:
“Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus towards the end of her life, spoke to me about herself without my questioning her, on this subject of the instruments of penance. She knew that I had an attraction for this kind of mortification. She warned me, assured me that it was not made for the souls who would follow "her way", and added, Take on yourselves my yoke and receive my lessons because I am meek and humble of Heart and you will find the rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light. You see, we must take his yoke, he does not say to impose another on us....
By the yoke of the Lord, she meant not only the interior and exterior trials, but the rule, the whole rule, to which she recommended being so faithful, including, of course, the disciplines prescribed by the Constitutions.
“This advice contained no criticism of those who, in a way different from his own, choose the instruments of penance. Didn't she say: "There are many dwellings in my Father's Kingdom...." She spoke to me like this to enlighten me because I had been prioress, that I could be again and that she was afraid that I would engage souls in this way. It was not for fear of discouraging the weakness of little souls who would fear to make themselves suffer, it was because she thought that one relies on these means of perfection, imagining that one did something, and it was for all souls in general that she did not appreciate this means. »
We still wanted in another conversation, to question our Mother who gave us these details:
“After the adventure of her little iron cross, St Thérèse of the EJ was completely opposed to the use of instruments of penance. She had understood that she had been mistaken that the good Lord was not asking that of her. Speaking to me, she looked at me with a kind of concern, wondering what I was going to say. When she saw that I was taking it well, she was relieved. »
We then showed Mother Agnès of Jesus the paintings of the “Little Way” which represent the Saint discouraged with all the instruments of penance and she assured us that she had expressed her personal thoughts there. Then examining the following tables: Bethléhem .....etc, she tells us: “it is another orientation. »
Since St Thérèse's warning, NM remained scrupulously faithful to the austerities imposed by the Rule, and it was even very difficult to make her accept the reliefs necessary for her health, but she abstained from superrogatory penances.
In the spiritual realm, she was inspired by the true spirit of childhood, and tried to inculcate it around her.
A young Sister, after a great inner storm, whose motherly prayer had brought her peace, asked in a moment of fervor for permission to make a wish for the most perfect. She received in response, this note written in pencil: “No, my little girl, you must not make this wish; you are a little victim of love, that is enough. When we love, we go to the most perfect naturally, because love is a divine force. And it seems to me that the good Lord is more touched, more glorified by it than by a special vow which obliges. It looks a bit like the servants and we are children. »
To her dear Visitandine, she outlines this program of life:
“Let us do our best in simplicity and humility... Oh! how beautiful, that's all, smallness, the spirit of childhood, humility. Let us ask for these unique virtues, in a few days, at the cradle of Jesus; he will give them to us and we will be as happy as possible in this land of exile, and we will go straight to Heaven. She pleasantly ends:
“I have finished my “sermon” and I embrace you, my beloved little sister, as I come down from the pulpit.
One of her daughters expressed to her the feeling of regret she felt at feeling so imperfect compared to the heroic examples of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Spontaneously, she resumed:
"You don't have to worry about it. Since the good God is our contentment, we are his contentment too. »
Another asked her how to become a saint?
" Oh ! it's simplicity, like my little Thérèse. Be very pure for the good Lord. All you have to do is recognize, deep in your heart, that you are unworthy of so many blessings, and immediately you are pure and beautiful. »
She puts this prayer on the lips of a tempted soul
“O my God make me become more and more aware of my weakness, but at the same time of your divine strength so that “You are always with me, Lord, like an invincible warrior” and that the sight of my misery become a grace full of sweetness. »
It's still the simplicity that she instills in a novice
“See everything in simplicity, as the good Lord sees it. Do not complicate anything, anything. Go ahead of you like a little child who wants to settle forever in his father's arms, then close his eyes while going through the tunnel that is life and only open them at the end, when he hears these sweet words "Winter is over. So, my little girl, you will open your eyes and see the eternal springtime, where the Lamb's wives follow him, in joy and rest, wherever he goes. »
“Believe me, she said to another, holiness is simple! »
But we hasten to add, my Reverend Mother, that his conception of holiness in no way diminished the principle of sustained fidelity to the duty of the state, and his personal life presents a magnificent example of this. She never ceased to encourage us to love our holy observances and returned to them frequently in her advice at the Chapter. In November 1906, on the eve of our celebrations for the Beatification of our Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne, she made this connection between their dull death, unfortunate victims of the Revolution, which did not have the apparent glory of that of the Christians of the first centuries, and our life of hidden immolation:
“Let us imitate our Blessed Mothers; They did not want to flee the occasion of martyrdom and, because of this courage, they picked the palm. Let us not run away either from the occasion of the small daily martyrdom which is presented to us! We run away from this opportunity, when we do not do all that the good God asks of us, when we resist his grace, his inspirations and when we close our eyes so as not to see his light which clearly shows us the sacrifice to be made, such duty to perform. We want happiness, peace, and we forget the word of Our Lord: “I did not come to bring peace, but the sword. Let us courageously take up this sword, give ourselves neither rest nor truce in the battles of life. It is thus that we will obtain true peace and that our hidden martyrdom, without a halo of human glory, without apparent honor, like that of our Mothers, will suddenly become, like theirs too, glorious in the eyes of the Angels and of all the Heavenly Court. »
Recommending us, another time, a point of regularity, she specified
“Believe that religious life is fundamentally beautiful and great only with the help of this form, that is to say of these external practices; she needs this habit to be approved by the King; it is
for the earth, the etiquette of his own court. Keep it scrupulously...
It is the same thought that made him establish this original and attractive comparison, at the end of the 1918 war:
“We said quite rightly at recess the other day that military dress is something noble. Don't you agree with me that the main reason for this nobility is the idea of sacrifice that this habit recalls, the idea of a life spent, often given for a great cause, and not because the costume is beautiful in itself because, were it muddy and all faded, it would still evoke the same idea of moral greatness.
“My dear Sisters, we have all put on a beautiful war uniform and we will have the advantage of keeping it until death. Let us wear it with dignity and remember that it terrifies demons, because it is a sign, for them, of our enlistment in a spiritual militia which must surely defeat them.
“In time of war, the enemy pursues only those who are dressed in military costume and not civilian populations; we must therefore wear our coat as the soldiers wear theirs, that is to say with the awareness that it is the target of our adversaries; we must expect to be attacked, in order to defend "the world from behind" which we have, indeed, the mission of protecting against the invasion of death.
"It is not 'that the life of man on earth is not a temptation for everyone', but if life in the world is also a struggle, we are constantly distracted by occupations such as , that it's like a kind of mobile warfare, while ours is trench warfare with its hours of isolation, of particular distress, without distraction and without hope of seeing the end of the struggle except at our last breath.
“Yet it is this war that we came to look for in Carmel. Why, then, would we be surprised and disconcerted to undergo it and do it? Oh ! I agree, it hardly lends itself to enthusiasm, but it lends a great deal to the desires of a heart which wants to devote itself entirely to the service of the God of hosts, and win for him great victories, often hidden, but faithfully inscribed in the History of Heaven.
“Let us therefore accept what our Habit represents, let us accept penance, solitude, dependence, mutual support, long offices.... In this regard, being the battalion of the good God, we must do the exercise before Him from time to time, present arms to him in good order, sing to him the special hymns to our army corps!
“Finally, let us believe that to die in our trench, after years of faithful service, is truly to fall gloriously, but let us believe, at the same time, that the eternal life of our soul and of all those we defend is worthy of those fights and bigger ones. »
The instructions she gave, she executed them first, and we could not have dreamed of a more lively chef. It was present at everything, let us repeat: at the common works as long as it was possible for it and without measuring its contribution to it; faithful to the fasts even beyond prudence, punctual even to the night office, which, however, imposed such an effort on her that she confessed one day: "Since I have been here, I have never gone down to Mornings without constraint and boredom; it has always cost me and seemed long and painful. »
This admission makes us admire her reaction even more, when in 1947 - she was about to reach her eighty-six years old - one very hot evening when she was overwhelmed, Sister Geneviève insisted that she dispense with this fatigue. Our Mother replied with firmness:
“Yes, I will go, leave me!... One day, it will be total impotence: Then, it will be over going to Matins...”
Like her little Thérèse, it was therefore not for lack of virility that she saw holiness through a prism of simplicity.
Should any event come to cut off our regular life, Mother Agnès of Jesus put us in the right atmosphere so as not to suffer any harm. Thus, with regard to the outings required by electoral duty:
“We are going to start voting again, to leave the Monastery, as if we had no fence! But let's not worry about anything: “We only have distractions and obstacles as many as we create for ourselves,” says the author of the Imitation. And since we are not responsible for this forced distraction, it can only benefit us.
"For me, I admit it, when I come back from my forced walk, and I see the garden, the Monastery, I am as if without words, gratitude overflows from my heart and I need to go on a Way of Crosses at the bottom of the garden.
“The good Lord has given us such a great grace by drawing us to Himself in solitude!
Thank him for making us feel it by these outings that are too frequent, but which cannot distract our souls. So let's go out, and along the way, let's not stop blessing the good God for having taken us out of the world to love him, serve him and obtain the salvation of poor sinners. »
Our Mother's energy increased tenfold in times of trial. And yet, we must underline how much his extreme sensitivity - that of a soul of refined delicacy - made these sufferings acute. But the solid framework of her soul helped her to pull herself together and she said:
“The good Lord always gives the strength proportionate to the trials that we undergo. Oh ! how it touches me! I have always seen it in my life. So I, who have no courage for nothing, when the good Lord left me suffering, I felt extraordinary strength to bear it. We have such a good God! and she resumed:
“How good is our God! He prides himself on being good and showing his mercy! »
She often reread this thought of our Father Saint John of the Cross:
"Do not be saddened suddenly by the unfortunate accidents of this world, for you do not know the good things they bring and by what secret judgment of God they are arranged for the eternal joy of his chosen ones. »
For a long period of her life, she felt a great fear of windstorms at night, to the point of being sick. Despite her prayers, she could not overcome this terror and she was deeply humiliated. She then said that she was crushed by the feeling of divine justice exerted on unrepentant sinners, so that this fear was transformed into a meritorious offering for the benefit of souls. There was, moreover, this striking contrast in her: her impressionability made small difficulties very vivid, whereas she showed herself to be remarkably strong in great trials.
At the beginning of 1944, the development of the air war sowed the fear of bombardments on our regions:
"It could well happen," said our Mother. At times, I am anxious. Then, I think of the agony of Our Lord: “He was seized with sadness, boredom, dread. My soul is sad to death! If you only knew how much good these passages do me. I had them copied on purpose to be able to read them again”.
"Are you scared?" he was asked as the alarm siren blared.
- Yes, but I abandon myself to the good Lord; only what he allows will happen. You have to trust him. He has his reasons; if he wants everything to be annihilated, we will put up with him...”
And she concluded:
"Jesus said, 'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Yes, everything must pass here below, but the good Lord will always remain with us. »
"Do you know," she asked, "the expression 'the devil carries stones?' This means that tribulations, if we will, are stones in the building of our sanctification. So it was with all our great trials. Several of them began to be called back, and as the conversation took place in the garden, from which she saw the Basilica emerging on the hill, she said with a smile:
“It is the case or never, to say that the devil wears stones. »
She brought up a patient in this pleasant tone that dilated:
“Don't believe that you can rest on earth saying: I've just had misery, now I'm going to have rest and joy. No no ! it is for Heaven; on earth, misery follows misery, but with the grace of God, everything reveals a beautiful blue sky. »
She herself did not dwell on her sufferings, and knew how to escape them so well, the past storm, that she put these successive tribulations into amusing songs to distract from them our recreations of the Holy Innocents...
Without stiffening in the face of physical ailments, she applied herself to simply accepting them, with abandon. At the age of 84, she had a serious fall in the garden, and she told us:
“I prayed to God to give me strength, because I felt faint. Coming back from the Stations of the Cross, I was thinking precisely of the speed of life and I said to myself: How quickly it will be the end of us. Finally, I had all kinds of deep thoughts. »
~ As a result of this accident, she had a very painful neuritis, especially at night; one morning, she confided: “Last night, when I was in so much pain, I was in anguish. But, I immediately abandoned myself to the good Lord, saying that I wanted everything he wanted. »
And, a prey to the same violent sufferings, she repeated: "My God, I conform to your will." I suffer, without saying anything else. The whole thing is not to like the suffering, it is to bear it well. »
And what a comforting thought this is, in which his loving confidence is always reflected:
"Jesus did not say: 'Come to me, and to increase your merits I will increase your sufferings, but 'I will relieve you.'
The many quotations we have already made, my Reverend Mother, have certainly revealed to you the attitude of soul of our beloved Mother, not only in her personal walk towards God, but also in her influence on those who benefited from her contact. Nevertheless, his long years as priorate require that we dwell more directly on his conduct in the formation of souls entrusted to him by his charge.
Above all, she let the Holy Spirit act and knew how to adapt herself to different temperaments, as a skilful gardener treats flowers according to their nature.
She told us this:
“I wanted, one evening, to water certain plants which seemed to me to be suffering from drought and someone came and said to me: “Oh no, that would harm them a lot, because they develop better in these conditions, their roots find plenty of water. moisture in the ground. On the other hand, someone said to me this, showing me a tree full of flowers: "These trees need a lot of water, it's because it rained heavily a fortnight ago, that they are also beautiful this year. »
“This difference in the nature of plants struck me and I said to myself that our souls, also having different temperaments, must necessarily be treated by the good God very differently. Some, in fact, do not need, so to speak, any sensible consolation in this life, that is how they blossom, having only to cool off the dewdrops that fall during the night, that is, just what keeps them from dying of thirst. Others, on the contrary, need a great deal of freshness, abundant rains, that is to say, encouragement of all kinds, and if they suffer from the burning heat of a fiery sun, it is little, just what it takes to remember that they are in exile. If they were not treated with this gentleness, they would wither and produce nothing. »
It is again this suppleness of soul to divine impulses that she insinuated to us under this other figure:
“Last few days, for a feast, the altar of the Choir was adorned with natural flowers, particularly snowballs, several of which bowed gracefully to my side and served me as a spiritual bouquet. I first thoroughly examined one of these snowballs, and found that the many little florets that made it up were as fresh, as beautiful, anywhere, quite below , near stem as above. I then carefully opened this soft layer of flowers, and I saw still others just as beautiful, although completely hidden, and which seemed to be there only to strengthen the ball and give it its shape. . .I don't need to apply my little parable to fraternal charity, the snowball, you guessed it, is the image of the Community. Where the good God, who has his particular plans for each soul, has placed us in this Community, let us remain with peace and confidence, for we are surely useful there and blessed by his Heart. If we pushed each other, to take another place – if only by imperfect desires – we would break the harmony.
However, it is impossible for nature, I know from experience, not to wish, sometimes, under the influence of fatigue and temptation, a little rest, a place less exposed to the too ardent rays of the sun, like the showers of overwork; or, on the contrary, in certain delicate circumstances, not to envy a place apparently less useless, less effaced than that where obedience keeps us. Let us then humbly repeat the request of the Father: “Do not let us succumb to temptation” and let us all remain very faithfully attached, as long as the good Lord wills, to our providential stem, the only one charged with graces for us. »
In everyday life, my Reverend Mother, our judicious Mother applied herself to putting these principles into practice.
In a case where two Sisters saw differently, she confided: “I excuse both of them. I tried to think of what each might feel and tried to reconcile everything. This is how we keep the peace. »
She had encountered some difficulty with a Sister and people were surprised at her indulgence; she replied with her usual psychology:
“Don't make me make 'simmered' soup on it. In these cases, with this kind of character, it is my weakness that makes my strength...”
“To be pleasing to God,” she said again, “one must be charitable and without passion.
To her artist sister, who had just painted a portrait, she threw this beautiful thought, always on the docility to allow herself to be worked on by the good Lord:
" Oh ! how easy it is to be a saint, since all you have to do is be a canvas without saying anything, without doing anything... just letting yourself be painted. »
Following a projection session, concerning our little Saint, she developed other ideas for us, starting from the same object:
“We were having fun, the other day, in front of a stretched canvas through which passed successively, without damaging it, the least in the world, the most diverse images. Isn't this a lesson that this impassive canvas gives us? All the things of the earth, all the sad or joyful events should thus pass over us, like images, shadows without consistency, which leave no trace of their rapid passage.
But here are the projections of divine things whose trace, on the contrary, is profound:
“Our soul is really made only to reflect the image of the good God, his living image, his perfections, his infinite love. We must also be in darkness to see this divine light pass; the darkness of faith, where the faithful soul, always listening, always reaching out to God, reflects, at the hour when he passes, all the marvels of his grace and his love, and the traces of this passage are so deep that sin alone could erase. »
The lilies of the fields still appeared to him as our models to let us shape at divine will:
“The saints, while suffering more than others, also have more happiness. They are the lilies of the field, exposed to all storms and which, however, Solomon, in all his glory, did not equal. If they suffer from the wind and the rain, which are the tribulations and the crosses, they do not cease to be exposed also to the least rays of Heaven which are the divine caresses, the pure pleasures. And these favors give them a reflection all the more brilliant as their corollas, that is to say their hearts, are more filled with those tears which the Holy Spirit calls in the Song "the drops which fall during the night". .
Mother Agnes of Jesus knew how to handle authority with strength and gentleness; nothing could better sum up his form of government. Her strength was sometimes severe, even in the opinion of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and as much as humility disarmed her, she showed herself intransigent for a gap due to pride. But there was so much goodness in her that her firmness remained tempered with gentleness.
One laundry day, after a reprimand she had just given in the laundry room, she confessed:
" Oh ! I don't like to scold! I would never want to cause any pain... It has to be, however, sometimes, too, I believe that when we see me arriving at the laundry, you only smile with one eye and... you cry with the other. ! Me too, I would really need someone to take me back, but no one does it for me! Believe that when you are scolded, it is for your highest good. It is one of the great graces of religious life to be able to be resumed in this way, and one must not believe, on the contrary, that it is a grace to be very quiet and never to be humiliated. Then afterwards, you have to go away happy all the same; sulking is the worst thing. No, you have to be happy: have nothing on your heart, and always lead a cheerful and happy life. What do you want, we remain imperfect until our death, but we mustn't worry about it, because that won't prevent us from going straight into the Heart of the good God. What he asks of us is humility of heart; then, one can still die very imperfect and the good Lord will still smile with both eyes. Oh ! I am very sure of that! »
To a Mother Prioress of another Carmel who used her experience, she replied:
“May my holy little Sister inspire you herself for the formation of subjects. It seems to me that one succeeds better by persuasion than by rigour. But, we must always expect to suffer when we want to do good. »
And as people admired, on one occasion, the humble patience she had just shown, she contented herself with remarking:
“A Prioress who would rear up and want to take everything back to obtain perfection, would do nothing good and would hurt souls. I prefer to pray, reserving myself to speak alone with the Sister, in direction, for example. »
We had been obliged to completely redo the roof of the small dome of a hermitage, the framework of which had been attacked by ants. Our Mother used this as a pretext to recommend that we remove in our soul the little ties that hinder perfect union with the good God: "Let us not let the "ants" enter and multiply in our lives but, out of love for the good God, let us apply us to crush them as they arise to invade us. However, let's be sure that they will tease us until the hour of our death. So, if we have fought well, Jesus will give us the grace to crush our last ant by an act of perfect love, so that we will be mercifully exempted from going to shake it in purgatory..."
She encourages a postulant in the practice of renunciation
" Oh ! you do well not to look for yourself; that's how you'll find the only true happiness. First it's hard, and little by little it's soft, soft, soft..."
Through the voice of Jesus, she supports one of her children in the fight:
“...Time is running out...love me more and more in suffering, because soon you will love me in joy without ever suffering for me. The short years that I will still grant you will be full of graces, if you know how to forget yourself and seek only me. Always show a smiling face and, if sometimes, the creatures seem to abandon you and no longer understand you, think that I allow it to give your heart celestial freedom. »
It demanded fidelity to the fabric of daily duties and common life. Speaking to a Sister about little things, she explained to her how much they were, at the same time, nothingness in themselves and very great, since the smallest will have its repercussions in eternity.
Sick, seeing one of her nurses reciting her Office beside her, she suddenly said to her:
“You say the Office is good, but you shouldn't just do that; the good Lord awaits you all day.
- To speak to me in the depths of my soul? - Yes, that's it. And to the same again:
“Do the will of others, that will be the will of God; then, be smiling and kind to everyone. »
At the approach of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in 1922 her venerable little Mother offered us these reflections:
"To bring souls back to the truth, the good Lord has resolved to prove to them, through our little Thérèse, that if the holiness recognized by the Church is most often haloed by martyrdom and ecstasies, the time has come to make everyone understand that this is not what it essentially consists of, that holiness is quite simply to accomplish perfectly, from hour to hour, the divine will. And what is it for us? Oh ! it's quite simple. The good Lord wants us in the present moment, gentle and humble, patient, charitable, courageous, with a courage full of self-distrust in supporting the weight of life and our miseries, confident even to death. audacity in his mercy, because he is our Father and we live like cherished children in the shadow of his wings, the shadow, that is to say in faith, without seeing anything, but nevertheless warmed up by his love. »
This will of God in the present moment, she wanted us to accept it with love. One evening, a month before her death, she sensed in one of her daughters a temptation to discouragement in the face of a series of painful unforeseen events. She called him to her bed and said maternally: "We must take everything from God's hand." The Sister, who had told him nothing of her troubles, saw in this advice a supernatural inspiration, and was immediately appeased. But she didn't want people neglecting their duty out of false zeal under the pretext of seeking a higher good. A sister who asked her to extend her private retreat for two days: she answered “If you want, but the grace will no longer be there! »
Her desire for Heaven was not to be delivered from earthly trials, as she pointed out to a young Sister in the last months of her life: “I want to see the good God.
You too will go to Heaven, my little girl, you will have a beautiful place! But you have to want it only to know the good God and to love him, "
Mother Agnès of Jesus summed up her thoughts on holiness in a poem that was published in 1925, under the title “Nothing impossible to be a Saint”. It is a penetrating analysis of Teresian doctrine:
The prayer of the little ones is simple and delectable
It is an impulse of the heart that God always understands;
In the darkest night, it's ineffable grace,
To call him my Father and to be his child.
Our Mother had also given us a whole little code of spiritual life, in a series of “Christmas” for the recreations that followed this feast. An incident, a detail of nature provoked this poetic expression of her deep feelings: a beautiful neighboring tree falling under the axe, a beehive discovered in the bell tower, ..... She sings thus without literary pretensions, by way of monastic game with the sole concern of always instilling under the veil of allegory, the way of humility, trust and abandonment.
A Mother Prioress, a very close friend to whom NM had communicated them, wrote to her: Your great breadth of vision delights me more and more, it is so far from the narrowness which does not give the good Lord and tightens the heart. »
His Excellency Bishop Picaud gave him this authoritative testimony: “God has visibly blessed, and St Thérèse has supported your government. The last canonical visit allowed me once again to see that you are the powerful and living link of charity and union in your monastery. »
This portrait of our much-missed Mother would lack a truly essential touch if we
let's not add that this harmonious set of qualities is adorned with a unique charm, which one could not resist. From his early childhood, he had been mentioned in the letters of Mrs. Martin and Sister Marie-Dosithée. Mother Agnès of Jesus preserved all her life and until extreme old age, these kind manners, these gestures full of grace, which offered nothing composed because they were natural to her and which completed the stamp of the little Mother "ideal" of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. His small size and his agility still lent it; she seemed to "fly" from one place to another, barely posing, but observing everything and bringing with her smile, wherever she went, a ray of sunshine. She was the soul of the house, so much so that we baptized the time of her retreats “eclipses”.
Father Martin, founder of the Missionaries and Oblates of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, after one of his frequent trips to Lisieux, having had the opportunity to see her, wrote to one of us:
"It's been eight days since I left you and, since then, I still keep as penetrating an impression that I carried away and which is that, more vivid than ever, of an immense kindness encountered. ... This dear Mother Agnès, what an impression she leaves on me. She has a very special grace that the good Lord gives her, and which attracts so much that I don't know, as far as I'm concerned, what I wouldn't do for her. All those who have had a somewhat regular relationship with our venerable Mother would subscribe, we believe, to this judgment.
Our Saint, more than anyone else, had tasted this attraction and had inherited it for herself, in a way. We know how charmingly she bent to the characters of her novices, entering into the game of spinning tops, offering the shell for the one to be taken by these childish means. His little Mother acted no differently with the former "skittleswoman on Mount Carmel", undermined by a terrible illness, a lupus which devoured her face, and which she bore, moreover, with admirable and patient resignation.
Discovering, for example, in a magazine, a pretty child's head wearing a little hood, she cut it out and gave it to the victim with this note:
"X... is God's little baby." Here is the picture of her confident little soul. His lupus is well hidden under the hood of abandonment. »
Another time, it was a negrillon who presented himself with this handwritten motto:
“I'm going to Heaven. Therese is training me. “I am black, but I am beautiful” by suffering. It is Jesus who says so. »
Or an anchor bearing this sign: "Despite my lupus, I live in holy hope which will not be confounded." »
The poor Sister had made a little album of these maternal messages, which sowed flowers of joy on her cross.
To another, sick, whom she was supporting from afar, as we have already pointed out, by a daily letter, our Mother wrote kindly: "I am absolutely drowned... But, my head is still out of the water." water to shout to you "Good luck! In a few days, what happiness! Return to the homeland of Carmel, while waiting for the homeland of Heaven."
One day, she came back to us from the garden, holding a tall grass in her hand. Introducing her to us, at her side, she tells us with a delightful air:
“See! I am tall as a field grass! No taller than a grass! »
She was realizing what she had once written:
“The soul has no age, as the little dove cannot have a wrinkle. »
She instinctively abhorred anything that smacks of pretension, either in words or in writing and reading, and fought against it in her daughters. Having heard of a Superior who was called "a nun of great style", she told us:
"It's still not about me that anyone can ever say that!" and I don't want it, anyway. And she couldn't help adding: "It's so ugly!" »
But its very simplicity, far from masking its qualities, lent it a completely different ascendancy, which we find very well drawn from the pen of a religious:
“In the rare moments – like those of a Transfiguration – when it was given to me to approach him, I especially felt, tasted, experienced his exquisite goodness, his incredible delicacy. Everything I hear from her is of an ineffable grace. Of everything, it is smoothness, gentleness, charm and always with seriousness, depth and wisdom. »
We interrupted our historical account, my Reverend Mother, while Mother Agnès of Jesus exerted an intense radiance, both inside the cloister and outside.
We will take it up again with an echo of her “Golden Wedding”, on May 8, 1934, when she was still in full activity and surprisingly young.
Despite the honors with which she was surrounded on all sides, she had never got used to the prospect of a demonstration which would be, not for her little Thérèse, but for her. Also, this jubilee threw her into a moral anguish that became a martyr during her preparatory retreat. We suffered from it ourselves, but no one would have understood that this fiftieth anniversary was not officially celebrated. The good Lord allowed this painful disorder to disappear on the morning of the feast and our beloved jubilee tasted, in peace of heart, the supernatural graces and received with simplicity the so many testimonies of veneration and affection which flowed towards her, of the whole world. Several bishops, including the first Indian bishop, escorted His Exc. Bishop Picaud, who eloquently praised the delicate and beneficent mission entrusted by Providence to the little Mother of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
From Carmel, the Prelates went to the Benedictine Abbey, where the fiftieth anniversary of the first Communion of the angelic Saint was being commemorated. This second part of the program greatly delighted our Mother, who had no complete bliss without seeing her “little Thérèse” associated with it.
At the Chapter meeting that followed, she thanked us profusely and gave us some thoughts from her heart, of which we unfortunately cannot quote everything.
“And first of all, I repeat what my holy little Thérèse wrote to me at the beginning of the Story of her soul, thirty-nine years ago “I am at a time in my existence when I can take a look at the past, my soul matured in the crucible of trials. » And the experience I had was his own that « the Lord is full of meekness, slow to punish and abundant in mercy. »
“I again experienced that 'God is faithful, that he never tries beyond strength', that his gentle hand heals all wounds, even those that are due only to our imprudences and our illusions. Finally, I kind of touched the finger that only one thing is necessary to walk and stay on the path of truth, it is to take advantage of all the lights given to our dear little Saint by the Spirit of Truth.
“...I often think of a certain scene from the Gospel that I would like to see remembered in the sermons on Spiritual Childhood: It is the nocturnal visit of Nicodemus to Jesus. This doctor in Israel understood only then the divine oracle on evangelical lowliness. If I had lived in Our Lord's time, I would have done like him, I would have gone to find Jesus at night, so as not to have anyone around me who would have prevented me from telling him what I wanted and hear a special word from his divine mouth. But, that is what we do in Carmel; we came there to listen to him, at night, I mean far from the world. And, in this solitude, he teaches us everything we need to know. He asks us, like me today, to be reborn, even in old age, to simplify ourselves ever more, so that there remains in our soul only awareness of its weakness and proportionate confidence in God our Father. . It is this grace, unique, source of peace, that I desire for you and for myself, and I solicit it with ardor as a divine remembrance of my jubilee.
"...And let us repeat together with infinite gratitude:" The line has measured out for us a delicious part, a splendid heritage has fallen to us. »
It is this text that our venerated Mother had chosen as the central motif of our decorations, because it was indeed the song of gratitude which rose from her soul at this stage of half a century of grace. And we also saw the two doves, the entwined crowns, of May 8, 1884.
Mother Agnès of Jesus continued to edify us with her courageous precision, especially since at that time she felt a great weariness in her neck, and we saw her with pity, at the office of Matins, painfully supporting, from one hand, his aching head and, with the other, carrying his heavy breviary.
At 78 she confided to one of us: “Today I wrote letters of greetings for Christmas and the New Year to six cardinals, two others to the RRs. PP. X. and Y. My mind is tired of it. And it was at this rate that our Mother juggled the work of her office and her correspondence, interspersed with the inevitable visiting rooms and signatures solicited at the Tour or in the mail. If she condescended to autograph images in this way, it was for the sole purpose of pleasing. Fearing that her health could not withstand so much work, we pressured her to interrupt her work with an escape to the garden, to her dear hermitage in Gethsemane:
"I'm afraid it's not good, she asked timidly - But yes, Mother, it's an absolute duty." - Oh ! thank you, she answered joyfully, I didn't dare..."
And this little tour provided him with an essential relaxation, allowing him to then resume his overwhelming work.
We will not dwell, my Reverend Mother, on the various events which marked these ten years from 1934 to 1944, such as the National Eucharistic Congress of 1937 which crowned the Blessing of the Basilica, by the Legate of Pius XI, Cardinal Pacelli, become so soon after his successor on the Pontifical Throne; then the laying of the cross at the top of the Dome, by H. Em. Cardinal Piazza, our eminent and so devoted Protector.
This cross, in the middle of Heaven announced, for us, a crucifying era: declaration of war, two months later, the departure for Heaven, in January 1940, of our beloved Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart. The intimacy of soul that had existed since their early childhood, between her and our Mother, made this separation a particularly felt trial. But it has been given to us to see previously with what abandon this fraternal mourning was accepted. On June 16, 1941, also died the dear Visitandine, Sister Françoise-Thérèse.
On May 8, 1944, threatening circumstances only permitted a limited celebration of the “Diamond Wedding” of Mother Agnès of Jesus. Monsignor our Bishop came to offer the Holy Sacrifice in the infirmary of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It was a day of peaceful joy, despite the sinister accents of the siren. Our Mother had confessed, a few days earlier: “I have a crazy job, letters to write, a thousand things to plan; and that saddens the soul like events. However, I have already said to God, looking at the beautiful Basilica, all golden in the evening, at sunset: “I give it to you; do what you want with it... I said the same thing in front of the Chapelle de la Châsse. »
Such a consented holocaust well deserved to him “the peace which dominates all sentiment”. He was still buying a magnificent jewel of Teresian glory, without her suspecting it, since on the same day she made these offerings -- May 3, 1944 -- HH Pius XII signed in Rome the Decree proclaiming Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, secondary patroness of France, in the same way as Saint Joan of Arc. We weren't to find out until a month later.
Patroness of the Missions, Patroness of France! In evoking this last triumph, our Mother explained:
“The Holy Gospel tells us of Saint John the Baptist “He was great before the Lord. This is what I think of our Thérèse. She was great before the Lord, and that is the only true greatness. To be great in front of men is vanity. Certain current events eloquently prove this to us, once again.
“It is not the geniuses, were they conquerors, it is the meek, it is the saints who possess the earth,” writes a pious author. “Our Thérèse was great before the Lord, because she imitated Jesus, meek and humble of heart, and because she made herself very small for his love, because she too, like the holy Precursor, was “a burning lamp" to the point of daring to say: "In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love. »
JUNE 1944. ‑ War hangs over our Normandy. Plane raids escalate. A great anguish grips the hearts, in front of a stranger whom one senses terrible.
On the evening of the 6th, a first bombardment fell on the city, shaking the walls of the Monastery and suggesting a sequel. All night, our beloved Mother took refuge with part of the Community in the infirmary where Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart had died; bombs are raining down around us, because our improvised shelter was right near the string of bombs launched on rue du Carmel. Grouped near our valiant Mother, terrified, we pray with her, who remains calm; seeing her, feeling ourselves with her is our strength. But as soon as a lull takes shape, she rushes to the Tour to ask for news of the dreadful tragedy.
The next morning, Msgr. Germain, Director of the Pilgrimage, presented himself at the sacristy and offered to communicate to us, because the insecurity was too great for us to be able to celebrate Holy Mass. The House of the Chaplains is no longer habitable, that of our Sisters of Carmel Saint-Joseph, adjoining us, has partly collapsed.
The city is an immense inferno, the victims exceed a thousand; all the echoes that reach us are heartbreaking. The population fled towards the surrounding countryside, because another bombardment, we are told, was announced at the beginning of the afternoon. This time, we want to take refuge in the other wing of the convent, in the Infirmary of our little Saint. But, heedless of the danger, and faithful to her duty, our Mother lingers and one of us has just enough time to take her in her arms to snuggle up with her in an apartment, when the brazen deluge circumscribes us. again. Our courtyard disappeared under an acrid and yellowish smoke. We still come out unscathed, but what are the prospects for next night? In recent days, Mother Agnès of Jesus confided:
“I made the good Lord the sacrifice of our little one. Carmel, if he will! »
On that gloomy evening of June 7, she was even ready for the sacrifice of Abraham, since she declared to our Sisters of the Tour: "I said to the good Lord: "My God, I am even making the sacrifice of my daughters , if you want it... "
It was too much ! Thérèse had to collect the heroic offering and present it to the Lord, obtaining to make herself the tutelary angel of all the generous oblations of her little Mother, so that they would be spared.
Little by little, we saw rising, above our buildings, the neighboring fires, whose sparks fell even in the courtyard. However, we were determined to remain within our enclosure at all costs. But, at nightfall, the Superior of the Mission of France asked for our Mother and strongly invited her to go with us to the Basilica where our chaplains had already taken refuge; the fire was constantly spreading, the fire was certainly going to reach the Monastery and it would be extremely imprudent for us to remain there alone without help.
“But that's impossible,” murmured our Mother, “We can't leave our Carmel.
- My Mother, it is a grave responsibility for you, resumed the Superior, you are in danger as well as your daughters.
“- If it's a duty, we'll do it, but in how long?
‑ A few minutes, Mother, the time to each take a blanket. We are waiting for you. How to render the tearing of this hour? Thérèse's Carmel, this emblematic reliquary, was to be engulfed in flames... At almost eighty-three years old, our Mother had to abandon these places blessed among all, where she herself had lived for sixty-two years!
Her pain is poignant, but she dominates it peacefully, without even expressing it, and she orders us to prepare quickly for departure. The Blessed Sacrament is removed from the tabernacle; he's going to climb this Calvary with us.
At the threshold of the convent door, in silence, our admirable Prioress takes a last look at her little Carmel and blesses him with her hand, then she crosses the fence without a word of regret. She remains a leader at this tragic moment, as always. And we follow her, carrying her suffering, which doubles ours.
We cannot, my Reverend Mother, recount in detail this exodus, in the midst of burning buildings collapsing before our eyes, this difficult ascent of the chaotic avenue furrowed with bomb holes, debris of all kinds, even corpses , when the white Teresian Basilica appeared to us, almost intact, overlooking the destroyed city with its imposing mass, like an impregnable citadel.
What hope kindled in our hearts! We could face the gusts of iron and flames, Therese would keep us at home.
Here we are in the Crypt, deprived of light, summarily encamped in the chapel of the Virgin of the Smile, in the midst of many refugees, and even of the wounded picked up from under the rubble, by the courageous priests and seminarians of the Mission of France, who the next day snatched our monastery and our precious Relics from the flames.
At the beginning of this first night of exile, a few tears escaped from the eyes of our beloved Mother, and close to her, in a confident prayer, we presented, in our turn, these tears to the good God, thinking that They must have weighed very heavily in the balance of his mercy.
Then, life got organized in our cantonment; several masses each morning, a rosary meditated in the evening with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the recitation of our Canonical Office gave him a stamp of piety much envied by other Lexovians scattered in farms or makeshift trenches. It soon became apparent that we would have to prolong our stay up there until the liberation of Lisieux, because the bombardments continued and the city was nothing more than a desert.
On June 13, a messenger from Cardinal Suhard was able to reach us, to deliver to Mother Agnès of Jesus the Pontifical Brief of the Patronage of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus over France. It was, as we have said, dated May 3, because in his extreme benevolence, the Holy Father would have liked it to reach our Mother, like His Augustus present, for his Diamond Jubilee. This was a new cause for hope for us, rekindled by the invocation sung each evening in a pleading voice: "Sancta Teresia, Galliae Patrona, ora pro nobis." »
In our ordeal, the good Lord brought a very great alleviation by fixing our refuge at the Basilica. For our Mother in particular, despite the sinister events, it was like a divine response to a secret desire to one day see this temple up close, whose silhouette, contemplated from Carmel, caused a perpetual hymn of acts of thanks. She never tired of admiring her, meditating on the magnanimous reward given by God to the voluntary humility of her little Servant. This contrast between her hidden life and such an apotheosis produced, in Mother Agnès of Jesus, as in her daughters, an indescribable feeling of gratitude.
And behold, for eighty days and eighty nights she was going, with us, to live in the shade of this dear Basilica. The semi-darkness did not allow us to properly judge the colors and details, but we could nevertheless appreciate the purity of the lines and the breadth of the whole.
One Sunday, Bishop Germain invited our Mother and Sister Geneviève to go up to the upper part of the dome and, out of prudence, we took a portable chair. What was our astonishment to see our venerated Mother climb more easily than the others, the narrow stairs of the turret, refusing any break. Arrived at the upper galleries, she immersed herself in the beauty of the splendid horizon extending far beyond the valley, not even paying attention to the planes dropping their bombs all around. And as they begged her to park behind some pillar, she replied boldly, "No, let me see everything while I'm at it." »
Our dear Mother felt the need to complete her poem: “What I saw”, with her impressions of this unexpected sight of the Basilica.
For my "Diamond Wedding", I had this strange desire: to visit the beautiful Monument, the Temple erected for our Angel.
She is answered, but through iron and fire. His faith is not disarmed. How not to admire the youthful soul of this octogenarian who, seeing threatened all that she holds dearest, launches this cry of desperate confidence:
But besides, when would disappear
Of our Holy all vestige,
Our heart would still praise you,
O God, whom Love alone directs
For, in your profound judgments,
The inspired Word tells us:
“A single day is like a thousand years,
And a thousand years, like a day..."
Our life of prayer and work continued outside the gates; a very dangerous life, but especially at certain times when our priests thought it prudent to give us general absolution before nightfall. Sky ! Our too brave little Mother brushed against danger without precautions, and because of this she caused us, on several occasions, mortal anxiety. After a murderous raid, where she had simply remained at her work table, near a broken glass roof, we found a fragment of a bomb which could have injured her, and we thanked God for having spared us this misfortune. During another bombardment which shook the Basilica... and her guests, seeing us around her, in terror, she said to us with such a gentle air: "There is nothing to do but bless the good God of everything, no matter what! »
Several times, during our stay on the Hill, our Mother went down to Carmel again, to judge personally of the damage, and above all, of the extraordinary protection of which it was the object, Seeing the sunny courtyard, its rosebushes in abundance, the peace indefinable from the cloister, compared to the apocalyptic spectacles outside, she kissed our walls saying: "My heart is full of gratitude to the good Lord who so visibly preserved us. I love our little Carmel so much!
On the favorable advice given to her, she took advantage of this forced and prolonged exclaustration to go with Sr Geneviève and her council to the city cemetery very close to the Basilica, to see again this privileged little enclosure, where so many Crowds came to pray to our Saint, and to kneel on the tomb of her venerable parents. Then she paid a visit to the dear Buissonnets, who were also remarkably protected. Our poor city was very gloomy, but some neighbors having learned that Mother Agnès of Jesus was coming, a Mother had a magnificent rose presented to her by her gracious toddler; others approached their little ones for her to kiss them and these mothers cried with happiness
The news of the disaster in Lisieux caused great emotion both in France and abroad and touching letters arrived from everywhere. Our Mother herself responded to many, thanking expressions of sympathy and encouraging those whom the war had affected like us.
On July 16, in this setting which somewhat evoked that of the catacombs, she received the first vows of a young professed sister.
However, there was serious talk of an evacuation of Lisieux, imposed by the occupying forces. Cardinal Suhard and several of our Parisian friends urged us to anticipate this order, and offered us the welcome of several religious houses. In addition, they made available to us National Rescue trucks to transport us and our main relics. Cruel dilemma: should we neglect these precious and providential assistance, which could no longer be assured to us, if the military situation worsened, to then risk a dangerous flight on the roads and under grapeshot?
On the other hand, to leave Lisieux was for us the real exile and the abandonment of the little Carmel to pillage and all kinds of devastation. The anguish was such for all that a novena of adoration was organized in the crypt, and we remember the invitation made to us, on this occasion, by Our Mother, to go and pray assiduously before "the little good God ". For her, his soul did not vary in its abandonment in the face of possible death and the destruction of everything. And yet, she told us this secret, the ending of which really struck us:
“I pray and trust. I ask God to remove this chalice from us, but that's all.
I think of Moses saying, “Lord, not this, not that. I am not inclined to pray like this. I would be afraid of hurting him by saying, for example: My God, I know that you love us too much to allow this ordeal. I'm sure He particularly loves us, but I don't know how He wants to show it to us. I prefer to rely on him, he has protected us so much already! Isn't it miraculous that in the midst of such turmoil, our poor little monastery is still standing? However, on the evening of the closing of our great novena, I said to God about the evacuation which seems inevitable: “Do whatever you want, but don't force the evacuation on us. I felt like I could tell him that, because usually I accept whatever he wants. »
However, she gave free rein to leave to those of us who wanted to, but none were found.
This positive disposition of our Mother had enlightened us as to the course to take and we refused, to the extreme possible limit, the devoted and urgent offers of the delegates of National Relief. Afterwards, there was nothing left to do but face the battle.
Artillery duels took place over our heads for several days and several nights, but our Mother's confidence was not betrayed, and the hand of her little Thérèse protected us until the end.
During our exodus to the Crypt, many people from the city or the surrounding area came to greet Mother Agnes of Jesus, too happy to see her without a veil. She would have preferred to avoid these visits, but very simply, she lent herself to them out of kindness, and we knew afterwards that her amenity and the one she advised us in these same cases, did a lot of good. When the Allied troops arrived, we witnessed charming scenes. Officers demanded the signature of "Pauline", the sister of the "Little Flower"; at a solemn Mass celebrated the day after our liberation and where a thousand soldiers received communion, a collection was made. Our Mother had hidden herself modestly, behind a balustrade of our little chapel of the Blessed Virgin. But, suddenly, two soldiers, detaching themselves from their comrades, come to kneel in front of her and lay at her feet the product of their collection: "The offering of the poor", they apologize, and they kiss her hands with reverence.
Finally, on August 26, feast of the Transverberation of our Mother Saint Thérèse, the hour of return rang. In procession, escorting the vermeil casket containing the Relics of our little Saint, and accompanied by a moved crowd, we descended from the Hill towards our dear enclosure which, never, seemed to us sweeter and more beautiful.
Here is the little homily offered to us by our Mother:
“What could I tell you at this hour of our return to our blessed Monastery? My heart, like yours, is full of inexpressible gratitude. No doubt we have suffered, but how much our suffering has been softened! The Israelites, captives in Babylon, wept on the banks of the river remembering Zion and refused to sing their songs in a foreign land. "We were able to continue singing our songs, we were not in a foreign land and those around us were not our enemies. And then, our exile was softened, sanctified by several daily masses, the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the proximity and the support of holy priests, in this marvelous Crypt built to the glory of our great little Thérèse. We were able to contemplate its splendid Basilica up close, stroll around, dreaming of Heaven, on the Parvis, under the cloisters, the view of which extends over the beautiful countryside in the distance.
“We were also able to see up close, the marvelous protection given to this Basilica, by the numerous traces of bombardments that surround it. And, from this height, we saw, in the valley, in the middle of the ruins of Lisieux, our little steeple, our intact dome.
"One day, when thoughts of gratitude particularly filled my heart, I opened the holy Gospel and came across these words..."However, the Centurion and those who were there with him guarding Jesus, seeing the trembling of earth and the things that was going on said, "That man was truly the Son of God." I then made this comparison: We must recognize the particular love of God for our little Thérèse, since he did such great things, in order to prove that she was truly “Daughter of God”.
" Oh ! may she help us to resume our religious life with fervor! And let's not forget that we too could have lost our lives in this cataclysm, like so many other nuns. So, this life that has been preserved for us, we must use it fully for the glory of the Lord, that is to say, for the practice of all the virtues, especially that of fraternal charity.
If this and so many other things cost us, think that the encouragement given to Saint Joan of Arc by her voices is also for us: "Don't worry about your martyrdom, take everything in favor, you don't mind. go by great victory to the Kingdom of Paradise. »
Yes, let us take everything for granted, and the more we will have to suffer, the more we will allow ourselves to be slowly burned by the daily sacrifices, the greater and more powerful will be the flame of love which will purify our souls and merit their going straight to the Sky. »
It only remains for us, my Reverend Mother, to depict to you the evening of the long and fruitful life of our late Mother. As after a day of beautiful sunshine, we see the firmament irradiate with warm tones, so we were able to admire at Mother Agnès of Jesus a magnificent setting...However, if we had to establish any gradation between her virtues which had climax, we could say that it then showed the most perfect realization of "spiritual Childhood in the most advanced age." It seemed that Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus wanted to testify through her little Mother to what she herself would have been if she had reached old age.
Until 1945, when the fall we have already mentioned began to seriously undermine her health, Our Mother continued her normal and overworked life. At the end of her private retreat in 1948, she brought us back from the desert this spiritual bouquet:
"NS joined me from the first day of my journey, like the disciples of Emmaus, and he accompanied me until the last day, and I did not let him go. So, I hope that he stayed with me because "it is getting late and the day of my life is on the wane". Yours too, my dear Sisters, because the longest life is always very short.
What do we have to do, you and me?
- Nothing but to constantly listen to Our Lord, to follow his inspirations, every day and at all hours, to suffer all that he allows, to trust in him for everything, saying with our little Saint Thérèse: "C' is always what he does that I love. »
A day will come, the last, when he will bring us with him into the Inn of Heaven, and there, it will be given to us to know him fully “at the breaking of the bread”, at eternal Communion. »
A sister asking her, privately, how Jesus had shown himself to her in her solitude, she answered: “Not with consolations; with graces of strength and truth. »
Around this same time, our Mother told us this: “I saw little Thérèse in a dream last night. She was as I once knew her. She said to me with a smile: You are getting old, my little Mother. And I answered him: Nothing could give me more pleasure than what you are telling me. »
She therefore did not seek to delude herself and often told us of her approaching death.
Already in January 1943, on the arrival of our so good Chaplain, had she not declared to him on his first visit: “It is you, Father, who will give me Extreme Unction. »
On the eve of St. Agnes, in the year 1949, she suffered from pulmonary congestion, and it was deemed essential to transport her from her cold cell, to the north, to a heated infirmary, overlooking the garden and even on the Basilica. It cost her a little, but she nodded; this word sums up her attitude in the face of all the sacrifices that were imposed on her afterwards.
On May 8, quite privately, we celebrated his “Ruby Wedding”: the little drop of blood mingled with the sparkle of gold and diamonds...
Soon she saw the feather suddenly fall from her hands. We alone, my Reverend
Mother, we were able to measure what this impotence was for her. What good, how much work she had done with her pen? How about it, don't talk about its beautiful
writing noticed by the Holy Father himself, who said to Bishop Picaud in front of a letter from
our Mother: “See what firm handwriting, Monsignor, and at this age! »
A Benedictine monk noted for his part, speaking of her: “I wanted to tell you how much I admired her beautiful writing, so firm, so broad, quite open. I am not a graphologist, but what a beautiful soul we guess... »
The pen this time failed, but the soul remained strong. Mother Agnès of Jesus did not murmur a complaint: “I offer it to God,” she said simply to Sister Geneviève, in confidence.
To give her the illusion that she could still write, we sometimes tried to get her to write her signature, and we were heartbroken to see how much effort it took to form tiny, shaky characters. Her features contracted painfully at the poor result of such fatigue, and we were careful not to insist.
She was still walking with the help of a cane and leaning on the arm of one of her daughters. A Sister, meeting her like this, wanted to console her: “The Good Lord will keep your legs for you, my little Mother. She turned around quickly: "The Good Lord will do what he wants!" »
A novice reminded him of the third anniversary of his entry into Carmel: “So, I received you in full life! »
Because as her strength declined and she had to give up this or that exercise
common, she suffered deeply from it. It was even a real ordeal for her to continue to carry the charge of Prioress, without being able to be present among us, with that perfect fidelity which she had always observed. She exposed her scruples to our Superiors who, of course, reassured her, letting her understand that she should remain until her death, in the post where the Holy See had placed her.
Sometimes we caught her pensive and if we asked her:
“Everything escapes me,” she replied with resignation. Or again: "I only think of one thing, to be well with the Good Lord
I abandon myself, I would never like to resist him. I wonder what will be new today..... She implied: like renunciation.
We said to her: "Little Thérèse comes to ask her most beautiful roses from her little Mother
-It's true, she admitted.
the 1er November 1950, she again went to the Oratory to receive a Profession, but a few days later, her state of total depression inspired the deepest concerns: "It is a lamp that goes out for lack of oil, you will see it fall asleep so as not to wake up again” the doctors told us and it was deemed prudent to give him Extreme Unction on November 12. Despite her great weakness, she joined the seremony knowingly, and when she was asked afterwards if she wanted anything, "Nothing but Heaven," she murmured.
This thought of Heaven never left her. The doctors cared for her with a devotion that we must describe as "filial", and we ourselves did the impossible to prolong this precious existence. SSPius XII, informed indirectly of our fears, sent him his blessing and expressed the desire to be kept informed. Despite all the discretion we had kept, the press and the radio published alarming press releases, which earned us many letters, but also many prayers.
The Lord deigned to answer them and kept this beloved mother for us for a few more months. She gradually came back to life, but nevertheless, in such an unexpected way that the doctors saw in it a clear intervention of her Holy Little Sister.
She had, however, gone through the pangs of agony. Very agitated one night, the nurse heard her moan: “It's sad death! – But no, she told him to encourage him, it's the beginning of life “You have to be there...... alone, she continued with anguish. I can't take it anymore! My God, please have mercy on me! I surrender to grace! »
And again, “O my God, come get me! But she immediately added: "You must only want your will... I would like the Good Lord to be glorified more than anything!..."
The Good Lord wanted to add a jewel to his fiftieth anniversary of Priorat and reserve an immense consolation for ourselves.
In the course of December, we had the first echoes of the Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi of November 21, and of the invitation which the Holy Father made therein to the nuns to return to solemn vows. Since Heaven kept Our Mother for us, our dearest desire was immediately to make this total gift into her hands. Steps were taken for this purpose, and on March 19, 1951, Mother Agnes of Jesus herself pronounced her solemn vows, and received ours. Extremely touching ceremony which took place in her infirmary where she was bedridden, but which she endured without excessive fatigue.
On February 27, under similar conditions, she had received the profession of a novice.
With the return of spring, we were able to take our Mother out of her infirmary and even take her to the garden, to repeat her dear pilgrimages of yesteryear. The sun restored her vigor and appetite; she read, showed more and more interest in everything; it was a real return to life, which filled us with joy and hope, despite her own conviction, which made her say:
“I am like someone who is close to Heaven. Jesus still leaves me a little on earth, but it's as if I weren't there anymore. »
And she enjoyed, in advance, this long-awaited Heaven: “How happy we are to be in the good Lord! He has beautiful things in store for us in Heaven. One cannot know what it is... To know Him... I thirst for the waters of eternal life! »
Walking, however, being too tiring for her, she had to resign herself to the wheelchair, which she had feared so much! But again, she made no complaints. During his walks, the bells rang for the Community, which came running joyfully, had a little recreation with it and received its blessing. Most often, at the end of this sweet reunion, our beloved Mother distributed rose petals to each of them, then she watched us, delighted, throw them with love towards Christ in the courtyard. Wasn't this gesture renewing that of his little Therese quite a symbol?
She also sometimes went to the Tour to see her dear children from outside, finally, she attended the Salvation of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
On July 2, the anniversary of her First Communion, Mother Agnès of Jesus spent a good time in the Oratory, where the Blessed Sacrament was on display. It was his last worship. It happened to her as to her holy little Sister, of whom she had written in her Novissima Verba:
“July 2: She went for the last time before the Blessed Sacrament at the Oratory, in the afternoon; but she was exhausted. I saw her looking at the Host for a long time and I guessed that it was without any consolation, but with a lot of peace in the bottom of my heart. »
We could take up this finale verbatim for Thérèse's little Mother.
On July 13, Bishop Germain came to get from the Carmel, to install it definitively in the Basilica, the large Reliquary of the right arm of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, which we had kept in reserve for this purpose since 1934. Ciel seemed to be waiting for this event to leave the merit of this gift to our Mother, since the next day she was more tired.
On Sunday the 15th, our Chaplain brought him Holy Communion, as every day since November 11th. But, at the end of the morning, she seemed to us prostrate and had a crisis of suffocation. Our usual good doctor being absent, we called on his devoted deputy, who immediately diagnosed points of pulmonary congestion. At noon, she began reciting the Angelus aloud, but she stopped on these words: "Ecce ancilla Domini." Wasn't that the summary of his whole life of loving fidelity?
The following night, she went into a sort of semi-coma, of uraemic origin. We were on July 16, 1951, the sixty-seventh anniversary of her Taking Sail. Our Heavenly Mother hid her under her veil responding to her expectation, since our Mother had told us, the previous May 8, when speaking to us of the Blessed Virgin:
“You have to love it, love it ever more, it's the “Gateway to Heaven”. And she finished as if in a deep sigh: "Don't you think that only silence speaks?..." Did she measure what awaited her?
At the beginning of that night, before she fell into a complete drowsiness, her nurse was struck to see her look, painful and anxious, constantly moving towards a watercolor representing the blessed Virgin, maternally supporting a dying Carmelite in her arms. Then he headed for the Holy Face, to return with insistence to She who was soon to be, for her, “Janua Coeli”.
However, in the midst of our alarms, we clung to a hope: two of our Tourières Sisters were taking part in the Triduum organized in Lourdes, those very days, for the IV Centenary of the Holy Scapular and had had a Mass celebrated for her, to the miraculous grotto.: "You are going to prevent me from going to Heaven, I have such a great desire for it", she had told us shortly before, and the good Lord took pity on her desires... On the 17th, the grace of Extreme Unction was renewed to him.
On July 23, the Holy Father had this telegram sent to him: “His Holiness, informed of the worsening of your state of health, very paternally grant you a pledge of abundant heavenly comforts through the fraternal intercession of Saint Thérèse, a special Blessing. »
Alas! we had to content ourselves with placing the August message on his forehead for a few moments. : This peaceful sleep, without apparent suffering, lasted thirteen days! disconcerting the two doctors who surrounded him with the most attentive care, inspired as much by their science as by their respectful veneration. One of them, very attached to our Carmel, considering her as his mother, thanks to the no less affectionate assistance of another friend, who took her himself by car, made the trip from Paris to Lisieux, to visit it. We cannot convey our grateful emotion in the face of such devotion.
We never tired of contemplating this Mother so tenderly loved who, her head tilted slightly to the right, recalled the attitude, gracious and abandoned, of the child asleep in the arms of his Father: "sleep in the Lord". , remarked Bishop Germain, who entered to bless her.
On April 7, 1897, to her little Mother who confessed to her her apprehensions of the dreaded passage of death, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus replied:
“The good Lord will pump you up like a little dewdrop. »
Mother Agnès of Jesus had inscribed this consoling promise in her intimate notes, commenting on it thus:
“The Lord tells us through a prophet, “A sun of righteousness will rise for those who love him, and healing will be in his rays. "The little dewdrop will therefore not be destroyed, but only pumped and attracted by the Sun of Love, and the healing will be in its rays, that is to say, it will find itself at the same time, pumped and purified. »
This double prophecy on which the supreme hope of our Mother was based was being realized before our eyes; as the morning dew is sucked up only slowly by the heat of the solar rays, so her blessed soul was gently drawn, in a sweet and long sleep, towards the divine hearth of Love.
Saturday, July 28 in the morning, the doctor noted a general weakening and warned us that the outcome was approaching. At the beginning of the afternoon, in fact, the hurried breathing became intermittent, but the heart struggled for a few more hours. The Community surrounded our dear Mother and had, with regret, to move away for the singing of the Salve and Salvation. She returned in haste, called by the bell of the infirmary and a quarter of an hour before the Angelus, suddenly, the inert and icy hands of our dying saint pressed clearly those of her nurses, entwined in hers; then her beautiful eyes opened and fixed us with a clear and quite lucid gaze.
How to express our shock at this unexpected awakening, in this supreme moment... We hastened to recite his favorite invocation: “Jesus, gentle and humble of Heart, make my heart similar to yours. »
Immediately, a slight inclination of the head, a movement of the lips, even a smile, marked his acquiescence; she therefore returned to us, in full knowledge, for a final farewell. “My little Mother, all your children are there, close to you, with Sister Geneviève. »
Then, the dear gaze enveloped us all and turned in the direction of the much loved Celine. We continued the invocations to the Sacred Heart that she had repeated in the past, with so much fervor: “Jesus, gentle and humble of Heart, take my heart, let it be truly yours; change my heart with yours; place my heart very close to yours...” and a new inclination proved to us that it united itself to our prayer.
We murmured again, Thérèse's act of love: “My God, I love you, “Virgin of the Smile, smile at me. »
And finally: "Sainte petite Thérèse, help me, come and get me..."
And Thérèse "came down" at this call. At the same moment, half-closing her eyes, her little Mother exhaled her last sigh and flew away for the ineffable encounter...
The Saint herself had, during her lifetime, savored in advance the sweetness of this eternal reunion: “My little Mother, I cannot express my gratitude to you; I cry because I am so touched by what you have done for me since my childhood. Oh ! all I owe you! But, when I will be in Heaven, I will tell the truth, I will tell the saints: it is my “little Mother” who gave me everything you like in me. »
And we see Thérèse, "the Benjamin of the good God", as Mother Agnès of Jesus rightly said, presenting herself to the Sovereign Judge and to the whole assembly of the saints, this unique "little Mother", to whom she owed so much.
In the month of April 1951 our Mother confided very simply: “I saw in the great Book of the secrets of the good God some ravishing things. - Were these things concerning you or others? they asked her. “It was for me,” she confirmed.
She had to read them now, in full light, and taste the fruits.
And it was indeed a reflection of celestial peace, of serene and indefinable beauty, which was reflected on her face. Mastering her emotion, Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face closed her eyes. It was up to Céline to do this last duty to her “Little Mother”.
As soon as the news of the death was known outside, Bishop Germain gave the order to ring, first in toll, the bell of the Basilica, of which Mother Agnès of Jesus was the Godmother, then all the majestic carillon rang out. shook to a festive ringtone. It was, one would have said, the announcement of a triumph and of great joy, which moved our bruised hearts deeply.
Our dear Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, strong and courageous in this last separation, shortly after opened the Holy Gospel, and her finger, at random, indicated this text to her:
“Father, I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work you gave me to do. Our humble Mother could testify to herself, or at least we, her daughters, had to give it to her with gratitude and pride.
For this first night, we transported her mortal remains to the infirmary of our little Saint, where she had collected for herself so many fraternal and formal assurances of eternity.
Then, the following day, Sunday, we took her to the Choir, and, from the beginning of the afternoon, under the eager supervision of our Chaplains, a moving parade was organized which continued until the closing of the coffin, Tuesday at three o'clock. One cannot estimate the crowd which pressed during this time in front of our grid, because the press releases of the radio and the newspapers had raised an incredible emotion in the whole world, and people came expressly from Belgium, Switzerland and even, us was - he says, from America, by plane, to see Mother Agnès of Jesus and pray in front of her!
And we heard continual exclamations of admiration: “How beautiful! what an expression of peace! one would never have believed her to be nearly ninety years old. »
A hundred telegrams or cablegrams came to us from all countries, including this one from the Sovereign Pontiff, very exceptionally signed with His name:
Vatican City, July 31, 1951.
“Having learned with sorrow the news of the death of Our Dearest Daughter Agnes of Jesus, We recommend to divine mercy the soul of your venerable Prioress, through the intercession of the Saint of whom she was both sister and Mother and We impart to you, to Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face and to all the Religious, Our Apostolic Blessing. »
More PP. XII.
Spontaneously, all the friends of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of Mother Agnès de Jjésus directed their emotional sympathy towards our beloved Sister Geneviève, who received a flood of letters. Was she not the last survivor of this exemplary and privileged family, the only one henceforth to prolong, on earth, its faithful tradition?
the 1er In August, the solemn funeral was celebrated with the Pontifical Mass of REQUIEM by Mgr Fallaize, Bishop of Thmuis, under the presidency of Mgr Picaud, who for 15 days had been delaying his departure for Brittany, insisting on paying Our Mother this supreme homage of his deep esteem. He was surrounded by HE Mr. Pasquet, the Bishop of the Cradle of Ste Thérèse and Pauline, the Reverend Father Abbot of the Grande Trappe de Soligny, Mr. Testa, auditor of the Nunciature of Paris, delegated by HE the Apostolic Nuncio, and several other prelates, some representing their impeded bishops, and Superiors General. NTRPProvincial of Paris, that of Avignon-Aquitaine, and many Priors and religious of the various convents, constituted a Carmelite escort to the one who had done so much to endow the family of St Thérèse of Avila and St Jean de la Croix, of a new jewel of holiness.
The songs of the Mastership of the Basilica alternated with a choir admirably provided by our Reverend Fathers and the very many assistant priests. The organ modulated hymn tunes so appropriate:
Happy who from childhood
Subject to the laws of the Lord, etc.
And above all the melody of the poem: "la Nielle des corns" composed by our Mother:
O God your judgment how sweet to my soul
I had guessed well what I find in You
Your heart is all love, I only see a flame
I see only sweetness and tenderness for me...
After the Mass, Mgr Picaud ascended the pulpit, and while refusing to eulogize the dear departed, in a way cut off by emotion, he brought into relief, with his persuasive eloquence, the providential role and so perfectly fulfilled by Mother Agnes of Jesus in the life and survival of her glorious little sister.
Then the bishops and prelates, part of the clergy, about 75 ecclesiastics, entered the cloister for the three absolves, given by NTRPProvincial of Paris, and their Excellencies Our Sgrs Pasquet and Falaise. They were sung a capella by our RPCarmes who, dressed in their white coats, then took the coffin to carry it to the entrance very close to the vault located under the Shrine, where our dear sister Marie of the Sacred Heart was already resting.
Hadn't Thérèse predicted this hour when she said to Mother Agnès of Jesus on August 2, 1897: “I will soon be in the horrors of the tomb! You will be there one day too, my little Mother. And seeing you arrive near me, “my humbled bones will quiver with joy. »
It is our consolation to keep our dear Mother among us in this way. We can only fully subscribe to this wish with which our venerated bishop ended his speech:
“Our confidence is that today you have close to Saint Thérèse, a Prioress who continues to be associated with her, and who watches over the life and holiness of her Carmel of Lisieux. »
Don't we also have this promise made to us, one day, by our beloved Mother. They asked him: “When you are in Heaven, will you do like your little Thérèse, will you “descend”? With enthusiasm, she replied “Oh! I will not leave my little Carmel...”
And we are also sure, my Reverend Mother, that our unforgettable Mother keeps in her eternity this deep love and this affectionate concern that she dedicated here below, to our Holy Order and to all our Monasteries. So close to her little Thérèse, how could she not be a powerful and helpful lawyer?
We dare to ask you, my Reverend Mother, to rejoice her by adding to the suffrages already requested for her, a Way of the Cross, the invocations to Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, which were the constant aspiration of her soul and a Magnificat in action. of graces of the privileged favors of his long existence. She will thank you for it by the hand of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, to whom we ourselves entrust our debt of gratitude for all the testimonies of fraternal sympathy which have come to us from our Carmels, in our so great ordeal.
Please accept, my Reverend and Most Honored Mother, the expression of our deep and religious respect for Our Lord.
From Your Reverence, most humble Sister and Servant,
Sr. FRANÇOISE‑THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS AND OF THE SAINTE‑FACE,
Prioress, OCD
From our Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of the Immaculate Conception and of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmelites of Lisieux,
the 8 may 1952,
sixty-eighth anniversary of the religious Profession of our venerable Mother Agnès of Jesus.
IMPRIMATUR: +François‑Marie PICAUD, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux.
Translation and reproduction prohibited for any country. Copyright by Carmel of Lisieux 1952.
