March (?) 1894
JMJT
Jesus
My dear Leonie,
I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that you were accepted for taking the habit!... I understand how happy you must be, and I largely share your joy.
Dear little Sister, how well the Good Lord has rewarded your efforts! I remember what you said to me in the visiting room before you entered the holy ark. It didn't matter to you to always be the last, to take the habit without ceremony... It was Jesus alone that you were looking for and for Him you renounced all consolation. But as our beloved Father often repeated to us: "The Good Lord never allows himself to be outdone in generosity." So He did not want you to be deprived of the happiness of publicly becoming his Bride while waiting for you to be his Bride. It seems to me that the years of exile you spent in the world served to adorn your soul with a precious garment for the day of your engagement. The sad days of winter have succeeded for you the radiant days of spring and Jesus says to you as to the bride of hymns: “Winter has already passed, the rains have passed, Arise, my beloved, my dove and come... Here I am at the door, open to me my sister, my friend, for my Face is full of dew and my hair the drops of the night.” For a long time you sighed after the visit of Jesus and you said to Him as the bride: "Who will allow me, my Beloved, to find you alone outside so that I can give you a kiss and that in future no one will despises me!...»
Here at last is this longed-for day... You had not yet, dear little Sister, met Jesus in front of the world, but after having sought Him with great care, Here He is finally coming Himself to you.. You agreed to find Him alone outside, but He wants to give you a kiss in front of everyone so that no one ignores "that he has placed his sign on your forehead and that you will never receive any other lover than Him" .
My dear Léonie, I forgot to thank you for the letter, that's where I should have started, but you understand, don't you, that it's the joy I feel at your great happiness that alone made me commit this oversight.
I hope that your wishes will soon be granted and that your good chaplain will recover quickly. I beg you, my dear little Sister, to offer my respectful remembrance to your Good and Venerable Mother. I am like you very happy that it is she who gives you the Holy Habit...
I leave you remaining united to you in the Divine Heart of Jesus.
Your unworthy little sister
Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face rel.carm.ind.
