From Sister Marie-Dosithée Guérin to Mme Martin.
Source: autograph, fd 20 x 15,5.
V. + J.
From our Mother of Le Mans
March 9, 1867
Dear sister,
I'm writing you a few words to ask you to please go to Miss Pauline Lenormand's to look for some (artificial) flowers which she is kind enough to have cut out for me. and she does not know by whom to send them to me; I know that you often have opportunities, it would make me very happy to have them; you could also send at the same time the little book that we lent you if you have read it.
Courage and confidence, dear sister, I urge you to pray Ne‑De of the Sacred Heart for your little Pauline, if you knew all the graces obtained through her intercession and the many miracles she performs: tell her that if it is God's will that she keep your little one for you, you will give it to her when she grows up (if that is her vocation).
Text of the prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart:
Remember O ND. of the Sacred Heart, of the boundless power you have over the heart of your adorable son; full of confidence in your merits, I come to implore your protection, O sovereign Mistress of the heart of Jesus, of this heart which is the inexhaustible source of all graces and which you can open at will to bring down on men all treasures of love and mercy, of light and salvation which it contains, grant me, I conjure you, the favor which I request (to give my sister an apostle of the Heart of Jesus, who devotes himself service of your divine Son and yours, that he always retains his baptismal innocence and that he dies only after having worked a lot for Our Lord and the salvation of souls; I promise you, O Ne De of the Sacred Heart that he will bear the name of Mary).
No, I cannot be refused, and since you are our mother, O Ne De, of the Sacred Heart, accept my prayer favorably and deign to answer it. So be it.
[1 v°] I want to say daily prayers to this Blessed Virgin and to promise to make her two little bouquets (with permission) so that she will give you a son as you so desire this year (a second Joseph was born on December 19, 1867). Console yourself also for the loss of your little Joseph, the other day I heard something read that really struck me: He was a man who had an only son, tenderly loved, this child fell ill as soon as the Father recourse to a saint in whom he had a great devotion and conjures him to want to preserve the life of his child, however he died and this poor man conceived such great pain that he entered into mistrust against his favorite saint; the saint appeared to him and said to him: what are you complaining about? You asked me for a long life for your son and I could not do better or obtain a longer life for him than eternal life.
Goodbye dear sister, we are in Lent (since March 6) and I don't want to take you long, only I wanted to give you some more consolation. Kiss everyone for me.
your loving sister
Sr. Marie Dosithee Guérin
From the Von Ste Marie
DSB
[lr° tv] Don't forget me (sic) near Miss Lenormand and offer her my thanks.
