JMJT
Jesus
In Carmel on April 26, 91
My dear Celine,
For the fourth time it is from the solitude of Carmel that your Thérèse comes to wish you your birthday... Oh ! as these wishes bear little resemblance to those of the world... It is not health, happiness, fortune, glory, etc., that Thérèse desires for her Céline, oh no! that's not all!... Our thoughts are not on the land of exile, our heart is where our treasure is, and our treasure is up there in the country where Jesus is preparing a place for us near him. I say a place and not places, because no doubt the same throne is reserved for those who on earth have never been but one soul... Together we grew up, together Jesus taught us his secrets, sublime secrets that he hides from the powerful and reveals to the little ones, together again we suffered in Rome, our hearts were then closely united, and life would have been on earth the ideal of happiness if Jesus had not come again to make our bonds closer, yes by separating us he united us in a way hitherto unknown to my soul, because from that moment I can desire nothing for me alone but only for the two of us... Ah! Celine!... Three years ago our souls had not yet been broken, happiness was still possible for us on earth, but Jesus sent us a look of love, a look veiled in tears, and this look became for us an ocean of suffering, but also an ocean of graces and love. He took from us the one we loved with so much tenderness, in an even more painful way than he had taken our dear mother from us in the spring of our life, but is it not so that we can truly say: "Our Father which art in heaven." Oh ! how consoling this word is, what an infinite horizon it opens up to our eyes... Céline, the foreign land has only wild plants and thorns for us, but isn't that the part she gave to our divine spouse, oh! how beautiful it is also for us, this part which is ours, and who will tell us what eternity has in store for us?... Céline darling, you who asked me so many questions when we were little, I wonder how it is that you never asked me this one: "But why didn't the good Lord create me an angel?" Ah! Céline, I'm going to tell you what I think, if Jesus didn't create an angel for you in Heaven, it's because he wants you to be an angel on earth, yes Jesus wants to have his court here below. heavenly as up there! He wants angel-martyrs, he wants angel-apostles, and he created a little unknown flower called Céline for that purpose. He wants his little flower to save him souls, he only wants one thing for that, that his flower looks at him while suffering his martyrdom...
Céline darling, don't blame me if I told you that up there we would have the same place, because you see I think that a poor little daisy can grow in the same soil as a beautiful bright lily. of whiteness, or even a small pearl can be set next to a diamond and borrow its brilliance!...
Oh ! Céline, let us love Jesus to infinity and make one of our two hearts so that he may be greater in love!...
Céline, with you I will never end, understand everything I would like to say to you for your 22 years!...
Your little sister who is one with you...
(Do you know the two of us are 40 now, no wonder we've experienced so much already, what do you think?)
Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of the Holy Face nov.carm.ind.
