Marie Louise Castel 1875-1944
Peace and very humble greetings to Our Lord who, last January 16, during the time dedicated to his holy Childhood, wanted to invite eternal joys, we have the intimate confidence, our very dear SISTER LOUISE-JOSÉPHINE, MARIE DE LA TRINITY AND OF THE HOLY FACE, Professed of our Community, who had had the grace of being one of the novices of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She was 69 and a half years old, and had spent almost 52 years in religion: 2 years and 2 months at the second Monastery of Paris, avenue de Messine, and almost 50 years in ours. Apart from Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face and ourselves, she was the last to have known our Little Saint, so her departure leaves a very big void among us.
Our dear Sister was the thirteenth in a family of nineteen children, nine of whom flew to Heaven at an early age. His father was a State teacher, with an unfailing faith and who did not fail to preside, in class, every morning, over the prayer of his young pupils. He ruined his career, not being able to accept the secularization of the school, thus partially depriving himself of the benefits of his retirement. His righteousness and his goodness were more than once victims of human malignity, without ever being shaken his charity and his zeal for every good work. His wife's piety corresponded fully to his own and these very Christian parents knew how to generously make the part of the good God in their beautiful posterity. Their second son had embraced monastic life at the Abbaye des Prémontrés de Mondaye (Calvados), when the religious persecutions of 1880 forced him to leave the monastery for the barracks. Worn down by grief, he died two years later, aged only 25. Another son held high office for a long time in the Brothers of the Christian Schools, but still regretting the privileges of the priesthood, he began his Latin studies late and had the joy of going to the altar for the last twenty-five years of his life. One of the eldest daughters was a nun of Providence, in Lisieux, and the youngest is Visitandine at the dear Monastery of Caen.
Our Carmelite was born on August 12, 1874, in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives (Calvados), and was baptized the next day. Two days later, they took her to one of her aunts, in Saint-Martin-de-la-Lieue, very close to Lisieux, where she remained until she was four years old. Returning to her family, she quickly became imbued with the examples of solid virtues that reigned in this home and confessed, later, that she had always wanted to be a nun. Shortly before her 11th birthday, on May 21, 1885, she made her First Communion at Saint‑Lambert de Vaugirard, in Paris, while that same day, Saint Thérèse of the Child‑Jésus solemnly renewed hers at the Abbey. of the Benedictines of Lisieux. But other points of attachment would soon unite these two souls.
Marie-Louise was, for four years, the pupil of the Daughters of the Cross, rue de l'Abbé-Groult, and one of her Mistresses, in particular, kept the deepest affection for her all her life. From the Motherhouse of this pious Congregation, we recently received the assurance that our mourning was deeply shared there.
A rather extraordinary fact of our child's adolescence deserves to be reported, because it seems to mark his existence with an imprint that could be called prophetic. Here is how she left us the story:
“We had in my family a great devotion to the Holy Face. Papa maintained a lamp for her that burned day and night and, despite his heavy loads, he only wanted to use first quality olive oil. It was before this Holy Effigy that we gathered for morning and evening prayers, and the long litanies of the Holy Face were recited every day. “One evening, while cleaning the lamp, it broke; it was too late to go and buy another one and my father was saddened by the thought that it would not burn that night... bazaar and which excited my desire. I was proud to use it at the table instead of my old goblet; but seeing Papa's grief, I said to him spontaneously: “Well! take my beautiful glass, I give it to the Holy Face to serve as a night light. Which was accepted.
A few months later, when he woke up, my father, going to our oratory of the Holy Face, saw the lamp extinguished and the glass all black. He had great difficulty cleaning it and, to his surprise, he could not remove the shape of a brown triangle which remained embedded in the glass. All moved, he came to wake us up saying: “Come and see the marvel! The good Lord, no doubt as a reward for this lamp that we maintain day and night in front of his image, marked it with his name, since the triangle represents the Holy Trinity. " Oh ! It's for me, I cried, that the good Lord did that, since it's on my glass! "And I heard Papa say in a low voice to Mama 'It's true, Marie-Louise is right, it must be a sign for her.' You will see that the good Lord will do something with our daughter. “I was 13 then. However, one day when I was alone at home, I began to doubt myself, telling myself that Papa must have rubbed this place of the triangle less well and, to be sure, I emptied the lamp and cleaned the glass with background with sand. It was in vain. The triangle was polished and embedded in the glass and I had a supernatural feeling about it. This glass remained etched in this way for many months, then one fine morning it was found to be broken: the excessive flame of the pilot light had caused it to burst. »
Before verifying the meaning of this mysterious announcement, it is still necessary for us, my Reverend Mother, to borrow from the pen of our dear Daughter, the rather original story of her vocation to Carmel, a story which at the same time reveals the somewhat naive character heroin.
“About two years after my first. Communion, she writes, I saw in the Book of Piety of the Young Girl a prayer to ask God to know her vocation. It was a revelation to me, and I made this prayer for nine days, desiring to know the religious Order to which I was called. I was fully answered at the end of this novena. It was a Saturday evening, at 5:1 minus 4/12, (time of the singing of the Salve Regina at the Carmel) I was in our little oratory of the Holy Face and I was doing my examination of conscience, because I had to go to confession. to take communion the next day. Exciting myself to contrition, I looked at the Holy Face; then, I understood the love with which Jesus had loved me, my heart ignited with an intense desire to love him in my turn until I died of it, and thinking of the nuns who have the good fortune to immolate themselves for Him, I sighed aloud: “Ah! How happy the Carmelites must be! An immense joy came over me... the good Lord had just revealed my vocation to me and I would have liked to respond immediately to his call. Alas! I was only XNUMX!
“An incredible ardor had awakened in me, and made my forced waiting a real martyrdom. I give up detailing it, it even attacked my health. ! Nevertheless, around 14 years old, I understood why, in his mercy, the good Lord allowed this exaggerated desire; it had to counterbalance the intense need I then felt to love and be loved by creatures; he saved me from the peril into which I would certainly have sunk. Later, my dear little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who had become my confidant and my Mistress, guessed it well when she composed these verses for me:
“When in my young heart this flame was lit
“Which is called love... you came to claim it.
“And you alone, O Jesus, could content my soul,
“Because until infinity, I needed to love.
“Like a little lamb, far from the fold,
“Happy, I frolicked, unaware of the danger; -
“But, O Queen of Heaven, my dear Shepherdess,
“Your invisible hand knew how to protect me!
"Thus, while playing on the edge of the precipice,
"You already showed me the summit of Carmel,
“I then understood the austere delights
"That I would have to love to fly away to Heaven!" »
Unaware of the danger, Marie-Louise, despite her aspirations to the cloister, led a very free existence in the capital. Often, unbeknownst to her parents, she ran to shops, attractions and fairs. How much she entertained us sometimes, by telling us about her escapades: for example, the innocent zeal which made her in the massacre game, the silhouettes of priests or nuns! Didn't she tell us that, on the day of her entry into our Monastery, passing by the square where the fair was then held, she had made this request to her father "0h dad, before entering Carmel, let me for one last round of wooden horses. »
"In the meantime, continues our Sister, studying at the dear boarding school of Sainte-Geneviève d'Asnières, run by the Sisters of Saint-François-Régis, [Later one of her nieces entered this fervent Congregation and received the name of Sr Thérèse of the E-Jésus] Mr. the Chaplain had allowed me to make the temporary vow of virginity, as well as to one of my companions who also wanted to become a Carmelite. On the day of the children's First Communion, in May 1890, during the midday recess, my friend and I, evading the supervision of the mistresses, we ran to the Chapel; it was magnificently decorated, but only, at this moment, the small lamp of the sanctuary shone; in front of the altar, the great book of the Holy Gospels was opened for the ceremony of the renewal of the promises of Baptism; everything seemed to us to have a mysterious stamp, Jesus himself seemed to be waiting for us to receive the offering of our hearts. We were alone. Then, each in turn, with our hands resting on the Gospel, we swore to belong only to Jesus and to devote ourselves to his service until death; then we went to kiss the middle of the altar. After this solemn act, we joined our companions at recreation.
“Confirmation was to be given by Bishop Gay; I rejoiced to see him, because I knew he was Superior of several Carmels, but I felt impelled to promise the good Lord that I would make the sacrifice of not looking at him at all, in order to obtain entry into the Carmel in the month of the following August. I kept my promise and behold, at my first confession which followed, the Chaplain told me that he had spoken about me to the Mother Prioress of the Carmel of the avenue de Messine, in Paris, that she would receive me in the month of August to do an eight-day retreat outside and that, in the meantime, I had to write to him, to explain to him the reasons for my vocation. It was too much happiness, I didn't know how to thank God!
"However, I was very embarrassed to write this letter which was requested of me... Fortunately, I remembered having read in the notebook of my friend (she was three years older than me) twelve reasons why she wanted to enter the Carmel: Since she has the same vocation, I said to myself, I must think like her and, out of these twelve reasons, the Mother Prioress will perhaps find a valid one to accept me? So I started my letter like this:
“Are you asking me, my Reverend Mother, the reasons that make me want Carmel? To tell the truth, I only know one thing: the good Lord calls me and I come. He suffered until he died out of love for me, I too want to suffer out of love for Him. But here are twelve reasons why I want to leave the world. And I set about copying them into my friend's notebook. ; one of them was: the instability of the human heart!
“During the following Pentecost holidays, I went for the first time to pay a visit to the Mother Prioress of the Avenue de Messine. She opened the gate for me and, seeing her, I believed in the appearance of an angel, I seemed to be far from earth. She spoke to me of my famous letter, telling me that it was only its beginning that had given her the assurance of my vocation, that all the other reasons had not touched her: "My poor child, at your age, can you know of the instability of the human heart? and all the other reasons that follow! I blush a little and don't betray my secret. Deep down, I was happy that it wasn't someone else's thoughts that made me accept.
“In August, after the distribution of the prizes, I would soon be 16 years old, I went to Carmel to make my retreat, at the end of which I intended to enter forever. But the Reverend Mother thought it prudent to delay my admission for 8 months, so that I might strengthen myself further. The good Lord alone can know what I suffered from this adjournment. It was during this retreat that I saw Father Blinot, SJ, extraordinary confessor of this Carmel of Paris. He spoke to me with praise of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmel of Lisieux, where he had just preached the Holy Exercises, and he told me how she had gone to the Holy Father to obtain entry into the Carmel at 15 years old. I told him that I felt the courage to go on foot to Rome, if necessary, to have the same favour.
“Finally, on April 30, 1891, I crossed the closing gate and received the name of Sister Agnes of Jesus. I was at the height of my wishes. Nevertheless, I entered with an illusion, but it quickly fell. I believed that I would have felt the ardor of my love for the good God, as I had felt that of the creature and that then I would have no greater delights than to suffer for Him. And now, on the contrary, the smallest penances cost me extremely, and I had to call on all the energy of my will to hold on.
“For some time now, I had had a very strong desire to know and have as a friend a Carmelite who would one day be canonized, and I asked the good Lord for the grace. I even said, once, to my Mistress of the novitiate, who nevertheless showed me a lot of affection, that it seemed to me that I would make more progress in divine love, if I were guided by a companion a little more older than me, having the same attractions, and who would not only be my Mistress, but like an intimate confidante. Thus, the good Lord made me desire exactly what he wanted to give me later in Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
“One year after my entry, on May 12, 1892, I had the happiness of putting on the Holy Habit. Until then, my health had been very good, I felt in my element, and I hoped to arrive at the Profession without difficulty. But behold, during my retreat from the vestment began these sorrows of soul which lasted until my leaving this Carmel. Curiously enough, my imagination constantly represented to me my departure from this dear Monastery, my exile in the world, and finally my return to another Carmel; I suffered enormously from it, because I was very attached to my first religious cradle. My Mistress, for whom I had nothing hidden, tried to console me by telling me that nothing like this would happen. This strange struggle made me fall ill and the weakness became such that it inspired anxiety. The doctor consulted replied: "If you want to see her die, you have only to keep her!" To make sure of the will of God, the Mother Prioress had us begin a fervent novena to the Holy Face, since it was before this image that I had had my vocation. During this novena, my father came to see me. Our Reverend Mother preceded me to the parlor and explained the situation to her. Papa could think of nothing better than to offer to take me to Trouville, where he was going to join my family, and we saw in this solution the answer from Heaven. Our Mother told me about it very sadly, promising to take me back as soon as I recovered. I cannot depict my suffering; losing Carmel, everything sank for me, it was the agonizing night, I was devastated... It was on July 8, 1893 that I left my beloved Community, after having spent two years and two month. “Oh! How painful was my eleven-month exile in the world! I lived there as a foreigner, my heart was as if riveted to Carmel, its deprivation was a torture to me.
“Fifteen days after my arrival in Trouville, I wanted to pay a visit to the Carmel of Lisieux, to seek some comfort there. Our Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus came to the parlor, accompanied by Mother Marie de Gonzague; they had heard of me through the Carmel of Paris with which they were in close contact. From this interview, I had a presentiment that this Carmel was perhaps the one that the good Lord intended for me, but I rejected this impression, always counting on returning to my first religious family.
“On my return to Paris, I learned that the Superior of the Carmel on the avenue de Messine opposed my return to school before I turned 21, to give my health time to improve. This unexpected news terrified me! Full of compassion, the good Mother Prioress suggested that I seek admission to the Carmel of Lisieux because, she thought, the air of my birth would be more favorable to me. The desire to stay less long in the world made me accept. The steps were successful, but I had great difficulty overcoming the Superior of Lisieux. When I was most discouraged, I saw in the calendar that June 16 was the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, whom I had loved since my early childhood. I revived my confidence and begged the Blessed Virgin to work the miracle of my entry into Carmel that day. I was answered and, on this precise date, in the year 1894, this blessed Carmel opened up for me where the good Lord had reserved my place forever.
“I first received the name of Sister Marie Agnès of the Holy Face and I had for Angel Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Our Mother Agnès of Jesus, whose first child I happened to be, gave me complete freedom to have recourse to my Angel in all my difficulties, assuring me that it would be good for my soul to make extensive use of her. I was not long in appreciating the treasure given to me and in discovering in Sister Thérèse the holy companion and friend of whom I had dreamed for so long.
“For her part, this dear little Sister told me how she herself, after knowing that I had entered the Carmel of Paris, had wanted to know me and have me close to her. We were both very moved to see that the good Lord had brought us closer together.
“Six months later, I resumed the holy liveries of Carmel, without external ceremony, on December 18, feast of the Expectation of the Most Blessed Virgin. »
The beginnings of our dear Sister were quite painful: her delicate health did not fail to inspire the Community with well-founded apprehensions; then, his old habits of independence made his training more laborious. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in a letter to her sister Céline, alludes to it, when after having kindly compared her role to that of a little hunting dog running all day after her little rabbits, she adds: "I'm laughing, but deep down, I quite sincerely think that one of those little rabbits - the one you know - is a hundred times better than the little dog: he ran many dangers... I confess to you that at its place, long ago I would have lost myself forever in the vast forest of the world. »
One day when our young Sister had been strongly reprimanded, she came, quite discouraged, to find her Mistress and said to her sadly: “I no longer have a vocation! But the Saint, too clairvoyant to be impressed by a joke, began to laugh. Since then, if something went wrong, anticipating the same sigh, she warned him, saying: “So you no longer have a vocation today, do you? And the fight died down.
However, during this first year of novitiate, the difficulties piled up to such a point that all seemed hopeless. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus then asked her companion: “Are you confident that you will succeed all the same?
“- Yes, answered the latter, I am so convinced that the good Lord will grant me this grace, that nothing can make me doubt it.
"Keep your confidence well," resumed the Mistress resolutely, "it is impossible for the good Lord not to respond to it, for he always measures his gifts by our confidence." However, I confess to you that if I had seen you weaken in your hope, I would have doubted myself, so much all hope is lost on the human side. Heaven deigned to reward the blind trust of these two souls of faith and it was then that the ancient story of the Holy Face's night watchman took on its full meaning.
On the feast day of the Holy Shroud, in 1896, the name of Sister Marie Agnès was changed to that of Sister Marie of the Trinity and of the Holy Face, without anyone then thinking of the aforementioned fact. Finally, the time came to present the dear novice to the Chapter for Profession. She kept a joyful hope, but hell tried a last assault against this tried vocation. In the evening, during Compline, reports our Sister, I was seized with violent temptations, I said to myself: “I have been in the novitiate for five years in two Carmels to succeed in making my Profession; Didn't the good Lord show me clearly that I was not on my way, since I left a Carmel for health reasons, and I persist in wanting to be a Carmelite, despite all the difficulties that have dogged me thus far. It's decided, after Compline, I'm going to tell Our Mother that I don't want to stay. After all, I'm very naive in forcing myself to embrace an austere life that isn't my way. »
"At that moment - at the Capitol of Compline - I suddenly saw in my mind the marvelous triangle engraved on my old glass and an inner voice said to me: "How can you doubt that you are where I want you, since have you been given the name chosen by me? And immediately, peace and thanksgiving succeeded my anguish.
“I told everything to our dear little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She was very moved and said to me: “This glass, which at first has become quite black, is the image of your soul during the night of your long trials; you couldn't tell God's plans for you. Little by little, everything cleared up, became limpid again, and you realized that the Holy Trinity had forever marked you with its divine seal. Your end will also resemble that of this same glass which broke under the heat of too strong a flame: the ardent flame of divine Love will break your mortal envelope. Ah! spend your life in gratitude, for you are particularly loved by the good God! »
On April 30, 1896, five years to the day, after her first entry into the Carmel of Paris, Sister Marie de la Trinité finally had the happiness of pronouncing her holy vows. “That day, she notes again, in her private memories, was more of Heaven than of earth... Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus seemed as happy as I did. »
“I feel like Joan of Arc attending the coronation of Charles VII,” she told me. As for me, I was quite convinced that I owed him this priceless grace. In memory of this day, the Saint painted an image of the Holy Face which she gave to the happy professed, as well as three poems to sing her happiness. Two are printed in the Story of a Soul: "Gloss on the divine" and I thirst for love. In the evening, she covered her bed with forget-me-nots, leaving there this note: "My little Sister, I would like to have immortal flowers to offer you, but it is only in Heaven that flowers will never wither... These forget-me-nots will at least tell you that, in the heart of your little sister, the memory will always remain engraved of the moment when Jesus gave you the Kiss of Union, which must end, or rather, be accomplished in Heaven. »
We know how to respond to your desire, my Reverend Mother, by expanding further on the relationship of Sister Marie of the Trinity with our dear Little Saint. The Advice and Remembrances published in the History of a Soul contain many testimonies. Suffice it to say, in this Circular, that our beloved Daughter was the novice “skittles player at Carmel” and also that of the “shell”. We will quote throughout what she herself reported of these two traits, the most typical:
“As I was very young in character, the Child Jesus inspired me, to help me practice virtue, to have fun with him. I choose bowling. I pictured them in all sizes and colors, in order to personify the souls I wanted to reach. The ball of the game was my love. In the month of December 1896, the novices received, for the benefit of the missions, various trinkets for a Christmas tree. And now, by chance, there was at the bottom of the enchanted box an object very rare in Carmel: a spinning top. My companions said, “How ugly! What can this be used for? I, who knew the game well, grabbed the top and exclaimed: "But it's very amusing!" it could work a whole day without stopping, with good whipping! And thereupon I proceeded to give them a representation which threw them into astonishment.
“Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus watched me without saying a word, and on Christmas Day, after Midnight Mass, I found in our cell the famous top with this letter whose envelope bore the address
To my darling little wife,
BOWLLER on Carmel Mountain.
Christmas Eve 1896.
“MY DEAR WIFE,
Ah! How happy I am with you! All year long you amused me a lot by playing skittles, I had so much pleasure that the court of angels was surprised and charmed. Several little cherubim have asked me why I did not make them children; others wanted to know if the melody of their instruments was not more pleasing to me than your joyous laughter, when you knock down a pin with the ball of your love. I replied to everyone that they shouldn't be upset at not being children, since one day they could play with you in the meadows of the sky; I told them that, certainly, your smile was more sweet as their melodies, because "you could only play and smile while suffering and forgetting yourself."
“My beloved little wife, I have something to ask you in turn. “Are you going to refuse me?... Oh! no, you love me too much for that. Well, I would like to change the game: bowling is fun, but now I would like to play spinning top; and, if you want, you'll be my spinning top. I give you one as a model; you see that it has no external charms, anyone who does not know how to use it will push it away; but a child who sees it will jump for joy and say: Ah! how fun! it can work all day without stopping!...
“I, little Jesus, love you, even though you are charmless, and I beg you to always walk to amuse me. But, to spin the top, you need lashes! Well, let your Sisters do you this service, and be grateful to those who will be the most assiduous in accelerating your progress... When I've had a good time with you, I'll take you up there, and we can play without suffer. »
Your little brother, JESUS. »
"I cried often, and for nothing, which caused my dear Mistress great pain. One day, a bright idea occurred to her: taking a mussel shell from her painting table, and holding my hands to force me not to wipe my eyes, she began to collect my tears in this shell. Instead of continuing to cry, I couldn't help laughing: "Come on," she said to me, "from now on I'll let you cry all you want, as long as it's in the shell." »
Now, eight days before his death, I had wept for a whole evening thinking of his imminent departure. She noticed it and said to me: “You cried. - IS IT IN THE SHELL? »
“I couldn't lie...and my confession saddened him. She went on: "I am going to die, and I will not be safe on your account, if you do not promise me to follow my recommendation faithfully." I attach great importance to it for your soul. »
“I gave my word, asking however, as a grace, permission to mourn freely for his death.
"Why mourn my death? These are very useless tears. You will mourn my happiness! Finally, I pity your weakness and allow you to weep for the first few days. But, after that, it will be necessary to resume the shell. »
“I must say that I have been faithful, although it has cost me heroic efforts. When I wanted to cry, I bravely armed myself with the pitiless instrument, but the care I had to take to run from one eye to the other distracted my thoughts from the subject of my pain, and this ingenious means was not long in coming. to completely cure me of my over-sensitivity. »
It was not without emotion, we admit, my Reverend Mother, that the day after our Sister's death, we opened her writing desk and saw in the foreground the historic shell of tears and the legendary spinning top.
With a charming simplicity, the better to highlight the supernatural prudence and the sublime virtue of her angelic Mistress, our late Sister thus delivered to the public or deposited at the Process for the Beatification, a number of traits concerning her. And we cannot forget the impression produced on the Ecclesiastical Tribunal by the long and interesting Deposition of Sister Marie de la Trinité.
It is to her that our Saint advised to imitate the little child who does not yet know how to walk, but who must constantly “raise his little foot to climb the stairway of perfection”. How many times, until the end of her life, our dear Sister compared herself to this little one, helpless to reach her goal by herself, but waiting with confidence to be taken up to heaven in the arms of the good God.
To her overly sensitive novice, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus taught not to cry, even before God, to hasten to the hard work of the laundry, in order to earn the living of her children: souls to be saved! not to fear a God who ignores calculation and is willing to be blind to our miseries, or else to appear before the Sovereign judge empty-handed. How many celestial lessons we could still cite!
Sister Marie de la Trinité humbly reports that she indulged in some attachment to her Mother Prioress, and immediately, the Mistress, full of wisdom, demonstrated to her that it was not her Superior that she loved, but herself.
" Oh ! Life is sad! exclaimed the novice, in a moment of discouragement.
“Life is not sad! on the contrary, she is very cheerful, continued Therese, if you said: “exile is sad”, I would understand you. It is a mistake to give the name of life to what must end. She also stimulated the ardor of her companion, who felt deprived of impetus for good: You complain about what should cause your greatest happiness. Where would your merit be if you had to fight only when you felt brave? ...If you find yourself too cowardly to pick up a piece of thread, and yet do so for Jesus' sake, you will have more merit than if you did a much greater deed in a moment of fervour. »
The disciple obediently received these ingenious directions and all her life praised the Lord for having been thus initiated into the marvelous secrets of the path of spiritual childhood.
The judicious Mistress still knew how to discover for him where to draw the strength to sustain the struggle. Following an infidelity that she bitterly regretted, Sister Marie de la Trinité had decided to deprive herself of her Communion the next day. The Saint, already ill, wrote her this note: "Darling Little Flower of Jesus, it is enough that, through the humiliation of your soul, YOUR ROOTS EAT EARTH... lift up your corolla, so that the Bread of the Angels may come, like divine dew, to strengthen you, and give you all that you lack. »
On the Eucharistic piety of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, we read in the Summarium this other testimony of her novice: "While she was sacristan, I witnessed the spirit of faith with which she fulfilled her office . She spoke to me of her happiness in having, like the priests, the privilege of touching the Sacred Vessels; she kissed them respectfully; but her happiness was at its height the day when, after removing the little golden plaque from the Communion Table, she saw there a rather notable fragment of the Holy Host. I met her under the cloister, carrying her precious treasure, which she carefully sheltered with her scapular: “Follow me, she said to me in a low voice, I carry Jesus. In the sacristy, she honorably placed the plaque on a table, made me kneel beside her, until the priest, whom she had immediately summoned, arrived. »
It was to her again that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, at her request, revealed how she was preparing for Holy Communion, calling the Blessed Virgin to her aid; to her too that she expressed her desire to be magnetized by Our Lord.
But all this, my Reverend Mother, is already well known to you, so we will note in the Deposition of Sister Marie de la Trinité and in a few pages of her memoirs, unpublished features: Besides their common devotion to the Holy Face - the canticle in her honor was composed by our Saint for Sister Marie of the Trinity – their two souls found a supernatural bond in a fervent worship for our Father Saint John of the Cross. We let our dear Sister speak on this subject:
“Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a very particular devotion for our Father Saint John of the Cross, a devotion full of gratitude for the good, the comfort drawn from his writings. She liked to talk to me about him and quoted me, from memory, the passages that had struck her the most: "He is the saint of Love par excellence", she told me. I can still hear him repeating to me, with an inimitable accent: "And lowering me so low, so low,
"I rose so high, so high,
"That I could achieve my goal"
this goal of Love to which she tended with all her wishes.
"After having written her poem for my Profession: "Gloss on the divine", she pointed out to me the thought which delighted her more: "Love knows how to profit as much from the evil as from the good that it finds in us. But, I would have to quote too much; what I cannot convey is the penetrating tone with which she underlined that her little way of humility and love was similar to the doctrine of Our Father: the nothing of us, the all of God.
“A passage from “La Vive Flamme d'Amour” fortified her marvelously in the time of her great trials: “I found it so lofty and deep, she confided to me, that when I read it, my breath failed me. Here are some excerpts:
“O souls who want to walk in joy and security, if you knew how good it is for you to be afflicted in order to reach this state... You would seek no consolation anywhere, you would want nothing but the cross with its gall and its vinegar, you would consider yourselves supremely happy to have it in common... By suffering external trials with patience, you would deserve that the Lord fix his divine gaze on you in order to purify you through more intimate spiritual sorrows . God acts in this way with regard to the souls whom he wants to lead to an eminent perfection. He allows them to be tempted, afflicted, tormented, purified internally and externally by suffering brought to its ultimate limits, in order to then deify them by union with his infinite Wisdom. »
In 1895, being in charge of the Hermitage of Saint John of the Cross, Sister Marie de la Trinité conceived the project, for her feast, November 24, to represent in rock paper this engraving of the Saint: "The rise of Carmel". Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus expressed to him all her satisfaction and pointed out to him these two sentences which were dear to her: "All goods have been given to me, when I have not WANTED them out of self-love", and "There is no way here, because there is no law for the just. ". Our dear Daughter adds on this page, dated November 1942: “I had the opportunity to speak about what I have just written to M. le Chanoine Travert, when he was our Chaplain: “My child, he said to me, I can no longer read Saint John of the Cross without bringing his doctrine closer to that of our Saint Little Thérèse of the Child Jesus; I find unfathomable depths in these close comparisons. Only, Saint John of the Cross shows us the bare cross, and Thérèse the cross covered with roses; but the thorns, to be concealed, exist none the less. »
The Act of offering to the merciful Love of the good God still unites our novice very intimately with his seraphic Mistress. She did not inform her of her donation as a victim to Love until November 30, 1895. Sister Marie of the Trinity immediately showed her the desire to imitate her and it was decided that she would make her consecration the next day. But, left alone, and reflecting on her unworthiness, she concluded that she needed a longer preparation, for an act of such importance. She therefore returned to see Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, explaining to her the reasons which led her to postpone her offering.
"Yes," said the Saint then, "this Act is important, more important than we can imagine, but do you know the only preparation that the good Lord asks of us?" Well ! it is to humbly acknowledge our unworthiness. Ah! since he grants you this grace, deliver yourselves to him without fear. Tomorrow morning, after thanksgiving, I will stay close to you, at the Oratory where the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed and, while you are pronouncing your Act, I will offer you to Jesus, as the little victim that I have prepared for him. . »
Let's take a few more passages from the Deposition, which highlight the moral aspect of the novice and the eminent sanctity of the Mistress: "I had recently arrived at Carmel, declares Sister Marie de la Trinité, and my Angel, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, watched me all the better because I had begged her to point out to me anything she saw in me that was reprehensible. She had done me several services for which I was, deep down, very touched, but I showed her no gratitude. So she said to me:
“You have to get used to letting your gratitude show, to thank you wholeheartedly for the slightest thing. It is practicing charity to do so, otherwise, although indifference is only outward, perhaps it freezes the heart and destroys cordiality, so necessary in community. »
“Saint Thérèse later developed this thought in her manuscript, saying that “charity should not remain locked up in the bottom of the heart”, because “no one lights a torch to put it under a bushel, but one put on the candlestick, that it give light to all who are in the house. »
She also corrected me each time she saw me wrinkle my forehead or contract my face: "The face is the reflection of the soul, she would tell me, it must always be calm and serene like that of a small child always joyful, even when you are alone, because you are constantly on show to God and the Angels. This is why she was still trying to reform in me a certain tendency to trick, to find out things and get out of trouble...
In another area, continues our witness, many times, during recreation or elsewhere, I said to him, "What do you think?" Tell me something?
“- What I think, she replied, with a deep sigh, ah! it's that I would like to be unknown and counted for nothing! »
“- Why do you so much desire to be forgotten, I tell him one day; I find it very pleasant to be loved and considered.
“- I am of your opinion, she hastened to explain to me, but for Heaven only because, here below, it is only mirage and illusion. And smiling, she added:
"If, Up there, one of the saints did not love me, it seems to me that I could not help saying to the good Lord: Lord, as long as he does not love me, my happiness will not will not be complete. »
“She kept warning me against the demon of pride: 'He revolves around us,' she said. We blind ourselves, we darken ourselves so easily... Look at poor Lamennais, who had nevertheless written such beautiful things on humility! All that one can say or write is nothing. What preserves is to be, at all times, in the disposition to humbly accept to be corrected, even if one is not aware of having been wrong, and above all, not to apologize internally. The humble peace that will follow will be the reward for our effort. It is good and even necessary for us to see ourselves sometimes on the ground, to see our imperfection; it does more good than rejoicing in his progress. »
“I spoke to him one day, continues Sister Marie of the Trinity, of the wish of several saints to always do what seems most perfect to them. She then said to me: “there is no need to have made this vow to practice it: for me, I always try to act as if I had made it. Besides, I do not understand how a soul who loves the good God, and especially a Carmelite, can act otherwise, because it is a duty of our vocation. »
“At a Community feast, in 1894, some pious sentences were drawn and here is the one that fell to him: “If at every moment, you were asked: what are you doing? Your answer should be: I like. ! In the refectory? I like ! In the Choir? I like ! Everywhere ? I like” This note, which she kept until her death, gave her great pleasure, and she confided to me: “It is the echo of my soul; this is how I practice living on love, in all places and in all circumstances. »
“I admired her fidelity and her charity, especially with a nun who had been her first in the job for several years, and whose morbid minutiae were as boring as possible. One day this Sister had given me a whole speech mixed with pious thoughts, and with her usual lack of clarity, I declared to her in an impatient tone: “I am in a hurry, tell me clearly what you want? - Oh ! My little Sister, she replied, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus has never spoken to me as you do!” I reported the incident to the Servant of God who corrected me: “Be very gentle with this good Sister; she is ill, then, it is charity to let her believe that she is doing us good with her little sermons, and that gives us the opportunity to practice patience. »
Yet another small fact revealed to us by the humility of our pious child: “One feast day, in the refectory, they forgot to give me, like everyone else, a dessert which was to my liking. After dinner, I went to see Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and I just found my neighbor at the table near her, to whom I cleverly made her understand her lack of attention. Sister Thérèse having heard me, forced me to go and ask the Sister in charge of the service for this dessert, and as I begged her not to impose this humiliating step on me:. “It will be your penance, she told me sternly, you are not worthy of the sacrifices that the good Lord asks of you. It is he who allowed this oversight and you deceive his expectation by complaining. » I can say, concludes our modest Sister, that, for all my life, the lesson bore fruit. On another occasion, she said to me again: “Notice the method used to make the brass shine: they are coated with mud, with materials that make them dull and dirty; with that, they are rubbed vigorously, and then they shine like gold. Temptations are like this mud for the soul, they only serve to make shine in it the virtues opposed to these same temptations. »
It was on a movement of repentance from her dear novice that our Saint, very moved, exclaimed: “If you know what I feel! I have never understood so well with what love Jesus receives us when we ask him for forgiveness after a fault!... Yes, certainly, even more quickly than I have just done, he will forget all our iniquities so as never to to remember it.... it will do even more; he will love us even more than before our fault! »
Sister Marie de la Trinité drank deliciously from this source of pure truth and became more and more enthusiastic about the consummate holiness that she came so close to. Having preserved from her Parisian youth a pleasant and spontaneous character, she even went so far as to kneel down in a gesture of admiration in front of her young Mistress, then clasping her hands and bowing her head, she exclaimed: "Oh! ! Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, you are not like the others, I am sure that after your death, people will prostrate themselves before you saying: “Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us” D ' where this kind rebuke of the Holy
“How childish you are! Come on, enough of laughing at me! »
In any case, the novice suspected many riches hidden in the one she surrounded with as much affection as instinctive respect. "Who then," she asked him, "one day taught you this little way of love which dilates the heart so much?"
"It's Jesus all alone," replied Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. No book, no theologian has taught it to me, and yet I feel, in the bottom of my heart, that I am in the truth.
"I believe in it so much," resumed his companion, "that if the Pope told me that you were mistaken, I would not believe him.
" - Oh! exclaimed Therese hastily, one must believe the Pope above all. But, have no fear, because, if when I arrive in Heaven, I learn that I have misled you, I will appear to you soon to tell you to take another road; but if I do not return, believe the truth of my words. However, mistrusting her novice's untimely zeal, she recommended that she speak to others about her "little doctrine" only with the greatest caution, to avoid false interpretations.
Here, on this subject, is a rather significant account of our dear Sister: "A nun from the Carmel of the avenue de Messine had asked me to ask Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus for a poem on detachment, and our Saint then composed: "La Rose effeuillée" The good Mother was very happy about it, but wrote to me that a last verse was missing explaining that, at death, the good Lord would collect these stripped petals to reform a beautiful rose that would shine all eternity. So, Sister Thérèse told me
“Let the dear Mother herself make this couplet as she sees fit; for me, I don't feel inspired in that way at all. My desire is to be stripped forever to rejoice the good Lord. And yet, she had no doubts about the divine answer! Other confidences are proof of this.
"My desires rise to infinity," confessed the Saint, in one of those intimate outpourings. What the good Lord has in store for me after my death, what I have a presentiment of glory and love goes so far beyond anything one can conceive, that I am forced, at times, to stop my thoughts. I feel dizzy! »
About a year before her death, she again confided to Sister Marie de la Trinité:
“Last night, during the hour of silence before Matins, I was thinking about my approaching death, so I fell asleep for a moment. In this half-sleep, I found myself in the middle of a field that looked like a cemetery; the hawthorns were in bloom, the birds were singing, I saw a lot of people celebrating, it was like a day of triumph. And I said to myself: But what is it? Who is this party for? But isn't it a funeral?... And despite everything, I had a feeling it was me. This dream seems very mysterious to me and I cannot help thinking that, sooner or later, we will know its meaning. »
Now, on the day of the Translation of the Relics of our Saint, March 26, 1923, this prophetic announcement suddenly came back to the memory of our Sister who could not help seeing in it the verification of the event glimpsed. It was indeed in a spring nature, in the midst of a pious crowd and in joy, that the virginal remains of the holy Carmelite left the field of the dead, on the eve of her Beatification.
During the last months of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in order to spare her too much fatigue and, perhaps also, because of the danger of contagion, the novices could not see her often. We can imagine the immense sacrifice that this law imposed on Sister Marie de la Trinité. She simply reveals it, in her Deposition:
“One day, exhausted with pain and struggle, I went to the infirmary and vented my complaints in front of another Sister. The Servant of God scolded me strongly for my lack of virtue and sent me away. But in the evening, she sent me this note:
“My dear little Sister, I don't want you to be sad; you know what perfection I dream of for your soul, that is why I spoke to you severely. I would have understood your fight and I would have comforted you gently if you had not said it out loud and if you had kept it in your heart for as long as the good Lord would have permitted. I just have to remind you that our affection must be hidden from now on. »
On another occasion, the amiable Saint showed her little novice a gesture of exquisite kindness. Let us again allow Sister Marie of the Trinity to recount this personal memory to us: “The news of the health of our holy patient was more and more sad and I was choking with grief. One afternoon, I went to the garden and I saw him in his little invalid's carriage, under the path of the chestnut trees; she was alone and beckoned me to approach - “No, I told her, we would be seen, and I don't have permission to speak to you. I entered the hermitage of the Holy Face, very close to there, and I began to cry, my head in my hands. When I lifted her up, I saw with surprise my little Sister, seated on a tree trunk next to me. She tells me :
“I am not forbidden to come to you; should I die of it, I want to console you.” She wiped my tears and leaned my head on her heart, I begged her to go back to her car, because she was shaking with fever: "Yes, but not before you smiled at me" I obeyed immediately, fearing that she didn't take any trouble, and I helped her back to her car. »
“Another time, needing to go and console myself near her, our dear daughter still tells us, I headed for the infirmary, but I was refused entry. Overwhelmed with grief, I went to the Blessed Sacrament, which was on display at the Oratory. As soon as it arrived, my pain vanished. A few days later, I found the opportunity to say to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: “Don't worry about me anymore, I don't have any more pain. I feel that you are praying for me and your sufferings obtain many graces for me.
" - Oh! what consolation you give me! she replied. How good Jesus is to answer my prayers for you in this way. »
“On August 12, 1897, the day of my 23rd birthday, she wrote to me in a picture, with a trembling hand: “May your life be all of humility and love, so that soon you will come where I am going.. .in the arms of Jesus! »
"When I am in Heaven," she said to me again, "I will often have to fill my hands with little sacrifices and prayers, to give me the pleasure of casting them as a shower of graces on souls." »
On September 30, Sister Marie de la Trinité witnessed the final ecstasy of our Seraphim and kept an unforgettable memory of it. We read in his Deposition:
“Immediately after her death, the face of the Servant of God became remarkably beautiful, a celestial smile animated her; he breathed peace and bliss. She had told us that the weather would be fine on the day of her death; now, the whole day of September 30 had been cold and rainy; but as soon as she breathed her last, all the clouds parted and the stars twinkled in the firmament. »
Our Saint no doubt wanted to virilize the pain of her poor novice, because she says: "When Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was exposed to the gate of the Choir, according to custom, many people came to see her and made him touch, out of devotion, objects of piety, even jewels. At this moment, a rather curious fact happened to me. Contrary to what the Servant of God had recommended to me, I kept crying, unable to console myself for her death. Now, as I approached her to make her touch a rosary that someone had just passed to me, she held it between her fingers. Very delicately, I lifted them to take it back, but as I freed it with one finger, it was immediately taken up by another. I started again in this way five or six times without result. And my little Thérèse said to me inwardly: "As long as you don't give me a smile, I won't give it back to you." »
“And I answered him: No, I am too sad, I want to cry! However, the people who were behind the gate wondered what I was doing for so long! I was very annoyed, and begging my little Thérèse to let me take the rosary, I pulled on it to get it by force. It was useless! So, weary of the struggle, I began to smile. That's what she wanted! for immediately she dropped the rosary of her own accord and I was able to take it away without difficulty. »
Our dear Sister received another lesson, which she explains in these terms: "For greater convenience, I had needle-stitched on our dress the folds which we must form by hand each morning, by putting on our belt. A few days before her death, the Servant of God had noticed this and told me to unstitch them, because it was not customary to fix them like this. Nevertheless, I left them still, postponing to undo them. But these unfortunate folds haunted me in such a way that, the day after the death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I said to myself: "She sees that I still have them and perhaps she has the penalty? » Finally, I made this prayer to her: « Dear little Sister, if these folds displease you too much, undo them yourself and I promise you not to sew them up again. Surprisingly, the next morning, I noticed that the folds were gone! I had a feeling of fright and at the same time of great consolation. It was also a warning to me to observe all his advice and recommendations very punctually. »
From Heaven, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus continued her trusting novice with affectionate solicitude, sometimes even granting her very special favours. In 1909, she suddenly delivered her from a dilated stomach that no remedy could overcome for more than two years.
On September 15, 1910, Sister Marie de la Trinité perceived the scent of incense from a worm-eaten fragment of the coffin of the Servant of God, found after her first Exhumation on September 6, and which was placed on a table, near the Tour , without anything special identifying him in his eyes.
A few years earlier, in June 1903, she had seen Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus in a dream and cried out: “O my dear little Sister, are you finally coming to get me? The Saint looked at her deeply and said with a gentle smile: “No, not yet!
" - Why is that ? replied the saddened former novice, it seems to me that I have already suffered so much. ! “- Yes, answered Thérèse, you have already suffered a lot, but you still have a lot to suffer... It is necessary, and be sure that you will not regret it. Then she kissed him and disappeared. Sister Marie de la Trinité woke up, her heart full of painful presentiments which soon came true. The fiercest trials struck her loved ones, and this dream comforted her greatly, while waiting to support her in the steep climb that awaited her. Moreover, her Saint Little Thérèse also supported her venerable parents. These valiant Christians celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1906. Permit us, my Reverend Mother, to confide to you this edifying detail on this subject: At the end of family feasts , a worthy Brother of the Christian Schools, a good old man of Jubilee age, suddenly took him by the arm, saying to him: “Come on, old friend of God, let's both start singing. And they intoned together:
Happy who, from childhood
Subject to the laws of the Lord,
Did not, with innocence,
Lost the peace of his heart. »
The song was so appropriate and was sung by them with such youthful ardor that no one present could restrain their tears.
The father died in 1912, and a few hours before breathing his last, he said to one of his family, who was inquiring if he needed anything: "Oh no, I'm in the company of little Sister Therese. »
The mother then came, with one of her daughters, to live in Les Buissonnets, of which they had been entrusted with the care, and it was there that she piously ended her life, in 1915.
Successively, two of our dear daughter's sisters devoted themselves for many years to showing pilgrims from Lisieux the house of our Saint; two worked for her in their respective Community, and the brother priest devoted the evening of his priestly life, as Chaplain of Carmel, to the service of pilgrims.
Finally, we must also mention the indefatigable zeal of another brother of Sister Marie de la Trinité for the Work of the Orphans-Apprentices of Auteuil, another domain of the benevolence of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Our Sister's father had been one of the most assiduous collaborators of the Founder, Father Roussel, and it was thus that our Little Saint heard of this dear House of Charity for unhappy children, and prayed for its development. She had no idea that she would later become its providential patroness and celestial provider.
But it is time, my Reverend Mother, to give you a more direct insight into the religious life of our dear first child. When Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus left for Heaven, Sister Marie de la Trinité was still in the novitiate. Her precocious vocation had hardly allowed her to extend her intellectual knowledge, but she had a very remarkable natural gift for calculation, which she practiced for pleasure; this made his assistance very valuable to us, when it was necessary to organize the sale of the editions concerning our Saint. She has always remained, since then, our intermediary with the printers and the Directors of the Central Office, who greatly appreciated "her great practical qualities, her competence, at the same time as her kindness and her virtue".
His searching and ingenious spirit made him find the most skilful or quick way to carry out a routine work, and better still, suggested to him to undertake long-term works, where patience played hand in hand with the most meticulous attention. Thus, in 1902, unaware like us of the existence of a concordance of the Holy Gospels, she composed one herself, very completely, and made several manuscript copies. Each year she established the Theresian calendar, and had drawn up, for her personal use, a table of the Sunday Epistles and Gospels and a daily psalter. Her molded writing made her the preferred choice for important copies, and her nimble pen still enjoyed, at the first free moment, picking up the thoughts of authors, noticed on reading. Sister Marie de la Trinité thus left us a mine of the most interesting, where alongside texts from Sacred Scripture, Epistles of Saint Paul, Homilies of Saint John Chrysostom, Sermons of Saint Bernard, Advice of Saint Francis de Sales and multiple quotations borrowed from saints of all ages, from pious characters, and even from very modern Catholic authors.
His memory fortunately recorded this rich spiritual booty and, when one desired any reference on a text of the Bible, the Gospel or other, one had recourse to it with the certainty of being immediately documented.
To take notes on the sermons more easily, our industrious child used the shorthand to which she had learned very young, although it was then not very widespread. She had also learned the art of bookbinding to render service to her Sisters.
Besides, she willingly lent herself to anything and, a lover of change, she passed with pleasure, always in obedience nevertheless, from one job to another, experimenting with almost all of them. But she worked more assiduously on making the Altar Breads and, since the start of the Teresian editions, she had to devote more and more of her time to it. She was also the first archivist of our Saint and it was a real joy for her to devote herself to her and thus contribute to the extension of her cult.
She had a good voice for psalmody and liked, in this regard, to remind us of a feature of her postulate: "We were coming out of a sung office, when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus made a sign to me to follow her and told me with an expression of great joy
“How happy I am! I had asked the good Lord that our new postulant have a strong voice to support the Choir, in order to make up for what I could not give myself, and here He is answering me! You have exactly the voice I wanted; now I no longer have any pain at not having one, since the good Lord has given me a daughter who has had enough for her and for me. »
“This memory is very sweet to me, continued our dear Sister, and doubles the fervor of my singing. I say to my little Sister in Heaven: “It's for both of us that I sing, I want it to be something agreed upon forever; give me your love so that my song may please Jesus; and I leave to you the merit of my labors at the Divine Office. »
Although in rather fragile health, our courageous child supported our holy observances until recent years. However, early infirmities bent her waist and forced her to lean on a cane. These premature signs of old age contrasted sharply with his still youthful face, cheerful character and pleasing protrusions. But, as long as she could, and we would even say beyond her strength, she wanted to fulfill the common obediences. No longer able to go up to the pulpit in the refectory, she did, however, in her turn, read during meals. Likewise, she attended the Office of the Choir, holding her inseparable staff in one hand and her breviary in the other. When it was no longer possible for her to be a weekly or cantor, she nevertheless claimed the honor of reading one of the liturgical lessons for the feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and we reserved the fifth for her, where it is a question of his novices.
When she had to give up coming to Matins, she compensated herself by arriving first at the Choir, for the morning prayer. We were deeply edified by such assiduity, because for more than twenty years, she had been suffering from lupus, which relentlessly continued its ravages. This illness was revealed following a pneumonia in February 1923. It was in this long and terrible ordeal, my Reverend Mother, that Sister Marie of the Trinity showed herself, by her heroic abandonment, the faithful disciple of her holy Mistress. Were her resignation or her endurance praised, she replied immediately that she had no strength, that it was Jesus who suffered for her. In April 1931, the doctor, although knowing the disease was incurable, sought to circumscribe it with points of fire. After a painful session, our poor Sister traced these lines for us: “The good Lord made me feel strongly that it was He who was supporting me, while I suffered from the points of fire. I gently thought that he measured the intensity of the pain by the strength he gave me to endure it. It was such an ineffable feeling that I was moved to tears, but I wiped them away quickly because the nurse was coming in at that moment and she might have thought it was the pain that was making me cry. O my darling little Mother, you must not apprehend suffering because, “He always gives strength”. One can say with assurance: "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" and fly to martyrdom as to a feast. But, it is usually to the weakest that he gives this enthusiasm to encourage them, and those who do not have it are still more virtuous; it is our Saint who said so. »
A reputable doctor, friend of her family, visiting her this past year, openly showed her admiration for her patience in enduring such illness, without hope of recovery. After this visit, our humble Sister gave us this little note: “My Mother, what an exaggeration on the part of this good doctor! If he were to judge things truthfully, he would see that the good God alone deserves praise, for it is his grace that operates in us and gives us the strength to suffer what he asks of us. »
We still find what she wrote to us, in 1935, when her poor body was already all bent over and her head sore from the growing wound: “I took advantage of the cleaning of our cell to return, with pleasure, to our mattress. Everything that, despite my state of infirmity, brings me a little closer to the Rule pleases me, because I think that the good Lord attaches to it a particular grace, given the kind of life to which he has called us. He also gives me the grace to willingly accept the reliefs he imposes on me through my compassionate Mother, when his divine will is to change the rule of suffering into another to his liking, and which I want to love. Nevertheless. »
But she was determined not to lose this wealth she had to exploit and generously offered the merit for souls.
“Oh! how good God is not to have spared us humiliations, she told us, because he has thus placed us fully in the truth. This saying of the Prophet "The Lord wounds only to heal", also does me a lot of good, about my lupus. Yes, all our wounds, physical or moral, united with those of Jesus, serve to heal souls and what a grace to be thus associated with his Redemption! »
In the month of June 1939, a novena to our Saint was made in Community, to obtain her healing. On the last day, she wrote us these moving lines:
“The novena is over and I am not cured. Humanly, I would have rejoiced in my recovery for many reasons, the main one of which would have been to free my so devoted nurse from this long and tiring daily dressing. But, noting the dispositions in which the good Lord placed my soul, I did not hope to recover, I said to him: My God, if I were to be a little less pleasant to you without my lupus, I much prefer to keep it. , to be completely agreeable to you, and it seemed to me that he looked at me with more complacency, such as I am, because of the features of resemblance to the painful Face of his divine Son. And she concluded: "No, I'm not a propitious subject for miracles, so let's leave it at that with the novenas!" The good Lord will help me to the end to bear my pain, as he has done until now. I rely on Him and I will not be deceived. I thank him for associating me, in a small part, with the Passion of Jesus, for the salvation of souls. In reality, I don't do much, because it is He who "from behind, supports the cross of his little child..." Sometimes, however, anguish touched our dear Sister as well as ourselves, because where would the invading evil stop? After having completely eaten away the left ear, then cut into the face on that side as far as the eye which was threatening to come out of its socket, it had covered the whole skull to reach the other ear. The mouth swelled and eating became difficult. The dressings lasted two hours each morning, and they had to be partially redone in the evening. Our sweet cripple always enveloped her good Cyrenes in her gratitude: first our late Sister Madeleine of Jesus, then our current nurse.
It was in one of those hours of moral anxiety that she received a light which she immediately shared with us; it was August 6, 1940
“My beloved Mother,
“I want to communicate to you a grace which has just been granted to me for my feast of the Holy Face. Yesterday, I was as if discouraged at always suffering from my illness, and, above all, I reproached myself for resembling so little our dear Saint, in her love of suffering, and I asked her earnestly to obtain this love for me. This morning, during Mass, I clearly felt that this desire made me go out of its “little way” and that it was better to accept to always be “poor and without strength” in pain.
“Can you ask a little child to love suffering? He cries, he is unhappy while he suffers. I understand that our Saint needed the practice of heroic virtues to be canonized, but she has traced out, for little souls, a very ordinary little way which keeps them in humility. The good Lord is pleased to hear us say, with his divine Son: "Father, take this chalice away from me..." because he knows that, nevertheless, we abandon ourselves to his will. And with her usual good nature, she ended: So here I am, "fat Jean as before" with my pain, but in an inexpressible peace..."
She reacted like this every time a tinge of melancholy appeared on the horizon of her soul. Following an interview in which she had seemed to us to be prey to a certain sadness, we received this note: "My Mother, I want to quickly rectify what I told you earlier, that it is not there were no more parties for me... I meant: no more natural joys because of my state of infirmity. But, in truth, I live in a perpetual feast as a result of my abandonment to the will of God. I would gladly say, like our Little Thérèse: “The good Lord took me and put me there! So he gave me the best of goods and I wouldn't trade my place for that of the happiest mortal! I like my part, such as it is, because it is that which the good Lord has made for me and that it pleases him thus.
“Your little girl, who is so grateful to you for the gentleness you put into her suffering! »
It took very little to arouse the gratitude of our dear Sister.
She had asked us to receive her for a little while each day; and, a few minutes before the prayer at 5 o'clock, she regularly knocked on the door of our Office, then sitting down beside us: “Here is your poor little leper, my dear Mother”, she would say to us. And we encouraged him as best we could to bear his illness well in order to cure the leprosy of sin which disfigures so many souls.
Often, she asked for “a little word from Godmother”. So, randomly opening the notebook where we collected some thoughts of Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, we gave her one, as a spiritual bouquet. And she left comforted, with the sweet smile on her half-face, since the other, all bandaged up, was just a terrible wound!
Our dear daughter had a great devotion to the Way of the Cross, but her state of increasing infirmity no longer allowed her to accomplish this holy exercise, in choir, for as long as she would have wished. One day, she expressed to us her deep regrets. We tried to console her by saying, “Well! be satisfied with making your Stations of the Cross under the cloisters, and say only, with all your heart, while passing in front of each painting and representing it to you in your mind, since you can no longer raise your head: “Sweet and. humble jesus! When, at the station, the Blessed Virgin also appears, you will add: "Sweet and humble Mary!" » You can then end with this double invocation: « Sweet and humble Jesus, sweet and humble Mary, make my heart like yours. » The good Lord attached a grace to this advice and, often since, our fervent Sister repeated to us « 0 my Mother, what consolation you have given me! The Way of the Cross now delights me more than ever, and you don't even notice that I'm doing it. I seem to be strolling around the cloisters, and I return to our little infirmary, all fortified and ready to start over a hundred times! »
Our dear Saint could not fail to help her former and very beloved novice in the painful Calvary which she was climbing in her turn. All that precedes shows the intimate action of his examples, but his assistance became, at times, more sensitive. In a few very simple words, Sister Marie de la Trinité wrote to us about this on August 23, 1942:
“Yesterday evening, during the dressing, when a haemorrhage suddenly occurred in the nape of the neck, I suddenly felt enveloped in a strong smell of incense. So I thought that our Saint Little Thérèse came to say to me: “I am not abandoning you, I am watching over you! » I assure you, my Mother, that I have been much encouraged by this celestial visit, to continue to suffer according to the designs of the good God. »
Last December 8, in her very infirmary, she fell which caused her a sharp and persistent pain in her heel. As she was a little impressed by it, we said to her: "What do you want, it is not surprising that, helping the Blessed Virgin as you do, with your lupus, to crush the head of the serpent, he tried to bite your heel, too. »
She then laughed heartily and drew from this thought an almost joyful courage.
However, we saw it decline every day. The state of his mouth especially worried us. It took him half an hour in the past few weeks to suck up half a cup of liquid with a blowtorch.
But the end of her martyrdom was near At the beginning of January, an influenza epidemic raged in the Community and she was fatally affected. In spite of very energetic care, the fever and the increasing oppression, we brought in our good chaplain who brought him Holy Communion on Wednesday January 12th. The next day and the next day she got up again and, to the laborious end, even busied herself with sorting the letters of our important mail. Giving them to one of our sisters, she simply said: "Tomorrow, I won't be able to anymore!" Shouldn't we point out here that, for three years, after our first verification of the mail of Sainte Th'rèse of the Child Jesus, she took on the very considerable work of classifying it. Deformed as she was, having only one eye endowed with visibility, we were sometimes surprised that she could perform such a task. It is true that after her frequent sleepless nights, she got up before waking up to sit at her work table and often said to us: "Mother, we must thank God that I can help our sisters who are so overburdened. And then this demanding work is a grace for me, because it offers me a healthy diversion. She only surrendered the day before her death.
On Saturday morning, seeing her increasingly weak, we decided to have her administered. She received the Holy Viaticum and joined the ceremony fully. In the afternoon, to our question: "Are you afraid of death?" - I'm only afraid that she escapes me! she replied quickly.
Our Sisters came to assure him of their prayers. To Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, her former companion in the novitiate, who had maintained a more fraternal intimacy with her, she murmured a word of affection. A few weeks earlier, the latter having asked her: “Does our Saint Little Thérèse console you in your ordeal? » Sister Marie de la Trinité could only reply: « She obtains peace for me, but in faith. »
To another Sister who congratulated her for having devoted herself to the extreme limit of her strength, she confessed: “It's true that I went all the way. And then, I always said to myself: when will all these painful bandages end? Well, it's over now. »
She was delighted by our presence and when we asked her if she recognized our voice, she replied affectionately: “I would recognize it among a thousand! So we suggested a few thoughts of trust to her, but immediately she resumed with a smile: “Sweet and humble Jesus! as if to make us understand that this single aspiration of love was enough for him. The following night was calm. She had all her knowledge and said to her nurse: “In Heaven, I will follow Little Thérèse everywhere! »
On Sunday morning, speech had become very difficult for her and she seemed to no longer hear. The agony began, resembling a peaceful sleep, and continued until 11 o'clock when, the whole Community surrounding our beloved Sister, she expired softly, in the abandoned attitude of a little child falling asleep on the heart of his Father.
It was then that, stretching out her arms to him, his celestial Mistress had to say to him, evoking the dream of forty years ago:
“You have suffered enough now; come and see that you don't have to repent of it! »
On January 19, before the funeral Mass that Mr. our Chaplain was to sing, some seminarians from the Mission of France came, in surplices, to the closing door, to take the coffin of our dear deceased to carry it to the Chapel. Pious homage paid to the one who, following the example of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Patroness of the Missions, had prayed and had sacrificed herself for these future missionaries of a new Christian France. These same Levites formed the crown during the three absolutions, the first of which was given by a Father Chaplain of the Work of Auteuil, the second by Mgr Germain, Director of the Pilgrimage and the third by His Exc. Mgr Fallaize, Bishop of Thmuis.
The mortal remains of our humble and deserving Sister rest in the enclosure of the Carmelites, in the cemetery of the city, very close to the statue of our Saint, who still seems to cover her with her protection.
Please accept, MY REVEREND AND VERY HONORED MOTHER the expression of our religious and fraternal respect and add to the votes already requested for our dear Sister Marie of the Trinity and of the Holy Face, the indulgence of the Way of the Cross, an invocation to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She will be very grateful to you, as well as to us, who have the honor to tell us of Your Reverence, the humble Sister and Servant in N.‑S.
SISTER AGNES OF JESUS,
contract. Priory
From our Monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception, under the protection of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Carmelites of Lisieux,
on February 20, 1944.
