JMJT
Jesus
July 12, 1896
My dear little Leonie,
I would have replied to your charming letter last Sunday, if it had been given to me. But there are five of us, and you know I'm the smallest... so I'm the one who's liable to see the letters only well after the others or not at all... It's only Friday that I saw your letter, so, my dear little sister, I am not late for my fault...
If you knew how happy I am to see you in such a good mood...
I'm not surprised that the thought of death is sweet to you since you no longer care about anything on earth. I assure you that the Good Lord is much better than you think. He is satisfied with a look, a sigh of love... For me, I find perfection very easy to practice, because I have understood that there is only to take Jesus by the Heart ... Look at a small child, who has just angered his mother by getting angry or by disobeying her; if he hides in a corner with a sulky air and cries out in fear of being punished, his mother will certainly not forgive him his fault, but if he comes to stretch out his little arms to her, smiling and saying: "Kiss me, I won't do it again." Will his mother be able not to press him to her heart with tenderness and forget his childish tricks? again by the heart he will never be punished...
At the time of the law of fear, before the coming of Our Lord, the prophet Isaiah already said speaking in the name of the King of Heaven: “Can a mother forget her child?... Well! even if a mother forgets her child, I will never forget you.” What a lovely promise! Ah! we who live in the law of love, how not to take advantage of the amorous advances made to us by our Spouse... How to fear the one who lets himself be chained by a hair which flies on our neck!...
Let us therefore know how to hold him prisoner, this God who becomes the beggar of our love. By telling us that it is a hair that can perform this miracle, he shows us that the smallest actions done out of love are those that charm his heart...
Ah! if it were necessary to do great things, how much would we be to pity?... But how happy we are since Jesus allows himself to be chained by the smallest...
It's not the little sacrifices that you miss, my dear Léonie, isn't your life made up of them? profit, not only for you, but also for the souls... It is so sweet to help Jesus, by our light sacrifices, to help him to save the souls that he has redeemed at the price of his blood and who do not are waiting for our help so as not to fall into the abyss...
It seems to me that if our sacrifices are hairs that captivate Jesus, our joys are also, for that it is enough not to concentrate in a selfish happiness but to offer to our Bridegroom the little joys that he sows on the way of life to charm our souls and raise them to Him...
I was planning to write to my Aunt today but I don't have time, it will be for next Sunday, please tell her how much I love her and my dear Uncle.
I also often think of Jeanne and Francis. You ask me about my health. Well ! my dear little Sister, I no longer cough at all. Are you happy?... That won't prevent the Good Lord from taking me when he wants; since I am trying very hard to be a very small child, I have no preparations to make. Jesus Himself will have to pay all the expenses of the trip and the entrance fee to Heaven...
Farewell, my darling little Sister, I love you, I believe, more and more...
Your little sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus rel.carm.
