Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart to Sr Françoise Thérèse
+ Jesus Wednesday, May 2, 1923
Dear little sister,
We have no other news from Rome than the letter from Mgr received this morning and which I am going to copy to you quickly, because we have so much work with these letters which arrive from all sides!
29th April
"I don't want this beautiful and wonderful day to end without me writing a few lines to you.-
In this ocean of soft and deep impressions, what drop to take in order to present it to you?
I have nothing to tell you about the impressions of the senses! - I was at my function, I sang the Te Deum - but I saw nothing; eyes drowned in tears and the proximity of the altar would explain why I saw neither the illumination nor the painting of Sister Thérèse in glory -
Feelings of the heart are better!
I know that we admired the painting of the Blessed.
The great number were under a marked impression of piety. I was able to avoid the crowd which, on my side, was beginning to show me with these words: The Bishop of the Blessed.
At the end of the ceremony, I had to offer the reliquary to the Pope. The Sovereign Pontiff spoke to me for a few moments and again repeated his recommendation to tell my diocese that he blesses him and particularly the Carmelites of Lisieux."
Add to these words the fire of his moved and paternal countenance, the tone of his voice the tightness of his hand...
Beautiful and splendid party attended by the Ambassador and two of our deputies."
My darling little sister, I say goodbye to you quickly so that my letter goes out, our pilgrims are coming back on Saturday, then we will have more details.
Moreover in the Cross there was some today and you must have had it.
Go, don't worry that your name is so untrue. It is written in letters of gold in the Heart of your Spouse, that is the main thing. You can't chase all the fable tellers. We just have to shut ourselves up in the Heaven of our soul with our good Jesus and abandon everything else. If we had gone to Rome, I'm sure we would have had more than one disappointment. It is very rare if the Bse in glory would have pleased us, of course it should not have been as good as that of Sr Geneviève.
Besides, we haven't always succeeded in our poor portraits ourselves, we have colored images which are so poorly executed!
Farewell, my darling little sister, I kiss you with all my heart
your eldest
Sr M. of the S. Heart
thank you
