| Age | Sources and Pages | Code Number | Quotations | Relevant Key Words, Phrases and Their Code Numbers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | SS 42. |
20-6-1 | …and my heart felt the exile of this earth. I longed for the everlasting repose of heaven, that never-ending Sunday of the Fatherland… He used to sing, in his beautiful voice, airs that filled the soul with profound thoughts, or else, rocking us gently, he recited poems which taught the eternal truths. | |
| 16~17 | SS 248 -249. |
20-16-1 | …Instead of the beautiful strains of music I heard only her occasional complaints, and instead of the rich gildings I saw only the bricks of our austere cloister, hardly visible in the faintly glimmering light. I cannot express in words what happened in my soul; what I know is that the Lord illumined it with rays of truth which so surpassed the dark brilliance of earthly feasts that I could not believe my happiness. Ah! I would not have exchanged the ten minutes employed in carrying out my humble office of charity to enjoy a thousand years of worldly feasts. If already in suffering and in combat one can enjoy a moment of happiness that surpasses all the joys of this earth, and this when simply considering that God has withdrawn us from this world, what will this happiness be in heaven when one shall see in the midst of eternal joy and everlasting repose the incomparable grace the Lord gave us when He chose us to dwell in His house, heaven's real portal? |
2-16-9 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials), 14-16-3 (The Little Way), 23-16-3 (The Joy of Sufferings), 24-16-2 (Mercy of God, Grace), 37-16-2 (Time) |
| 21 | GCII 861- 862, July 7, 1894, LT 165: to Celine. |
20-21-1 | …Frequently, we descend into the fertile valleys, where our heart loves to nourish itself, the vast field of the scriptures which has so many times opened before us to pour out its rich treasures in our favor; this vast field seems to us to be a desert, arid and without water….We know no longer where we are; instead of peace and light, we find only turmoil or at least darkness…. But, like the spouse, we know the cause of our trial: our soul is troubled because of the chariots of Aminadab….We are still not as yet in our homeland, and trial must purify us as gold in the crucible…. At times, we believe ourselves abandoned. Alas! the chariots, the vain noises that disturb us, are they within us or outside us? We do not know… but Jesus really knows. He sees our sadness and suddenly His gentle voice makes itself heard, a voice more gentle than the springtime breeze: “ Return, return, my Sulamitess; return, return, that we may look at you!…” (Cant. Chap. 6, v. 12.) What a call is that of the Spouse!… And we were no longer daring even to look at ourselves so much did we consider ourselves without any splendor and adornment; and Jesus calls us, He wants to look at us at His leisure, but He is not alone; with Him, the two other Persons of the Blessed trinity come to take possession of our soul…. Jesus had promised it in days gone by when He was about to reascend to His Father and our Father. He said with ineffable tenderness: “ If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make in him our abode.” (John 14:23.) To keep the word of Jesus, that is the sole condition of our happiness, the proof of our love for Him. But what, then, is this word?… It seems to me that the word of Jesus is Himself… He, Jesus, the Word, the Word of God!… In another place, Jesus teaches us that He is the way, the truth, the life. We know, then, what is the Word that we must keep; like Pilate, we shall not ask Jesus: “What is Truth?” We possess Truth. We are keeping Jesus in our hearts!… |
2-21-5 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials), 14-21-3 (The Little Way), 15-21-1 (Union with Jesus), 19-21-1 (Words of God), 28-21-1 (Peace), 43-21-1 (Darkness), 49-21-1 (Trinity) |
| 22 | GCII 902 -903, April 28, LT 176: to Sr. The- rese- Dosi- thee |
20-22-1 |
…I assured you, I was very sad, but, one day, God
gave me to understand
that there was a great self-seeking
in this desire to pronounce my holy
vows. Then I said to myself: For my reception of the Habit, I was robed
in a beautiful white dress adorned with lace and flowers, and who was
thinking, now, of giving me any dress for my wedding? … This dress I
must prepare all alone; Jesus wills that no
one help me except Himself,
so with His aid I was going to set myself to the task,
to work with
fervor…. Creatures will not see my efforts which will be
hidden in my
heart. Taking care to forget myself, I shall
want no other look but that
of Jesus…. What does it matter if I appear poor and destitute of mind
and talents?… I want to put into practice this counsel from the
Imitation: “Let this one take glory in one thing, another in
something
else, but as for you, set your joy only in contempt of self, in My will
and My glory.” Or : “Do you want to learn something that will help
you; Love to be unknown and counted as nothing!…”
When thinking
this over,
I felt a great peace in my soul, I felt that
here was truth and peace! I
was no longer disturbed about the date of my Profession, thinking that
on the day when my wedding dress was finished, Jesus would come seeking
His poor little spouse…. (Note: This letter was written when she was 22 years old, recalling the final Profession days at the age of 17.) |
1-22-1 (Self-love, Nature), 3-22-3 (Silence, Hidden), 7-17-4 (Renunciation, Forget Self), 14-17-5 (The Little Way), 16-22-9 (His Will, Perfection, Sanctity), 28-22-3 (Peace) |
| 23 | SS 197. |
20-23-1 | … But is PURE LOVE in my heart? Are my measureless desires only but a dream, a folly? Ah! if this be so, Jesus, then enlighten me, for You know I am seeking only truth. If my desires are rash, then make them disappear, for these desires are the greatest martyrdom to me. However, I feel, O Jesus, that after having aspired to the most lofty heights of Love, if one day I am not to attain them, I feel that I shall have tasted more sweetness in my martyrdom and my folly than I shall taste in the bosom of the joy of the Fatherland, unless You take away the memory of these earthly hopes through a miracle. Allow me, then, during my exile, the delights of love. Allow me to taste the sweet bitterness of my martyrdom. |
2-23-3 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials), 17-23-4 (Love Jesus, The Love of God, Charity), 23-23-2 (The Joy of Sufferings) |
| 23 | GCII 960 -961, June 20 or 29(?), 1896, LT 190: to Mother Marie de Gon- zague. |
20-23-2 |
…
“If I were to speak to her,
her trial
would disappear, her heart
would be filled with so great a joy that her staff would never have
seemed so light…but
I do not want
to take her trial away from her,
I want only that she
may understand the truth and
recognize that her
cross is coming from
heaven and
not from earth.” “Lord, speak then to my shepherdess. How do you expect her to understand the truth since she hears only falsehood around her?…” “Little lamb, are you not the favorite of your shepherdess?… Well! Repeat to her the words I am speaking in your heart.” “Jesus, I shall do it, but I would prefer if You gave this charge to one of the sheep whose reasoning is mundane…. I am so little … my voice is so weak, how will my shepherdess believe me?…” “Your shepherdess knows that I am pleased to hide my secrets from the wise and the prudent, she knows I reveal them to the littlest ones, to the simple lambs whose white wool is not soiled by the dust of the road.… She will believe you, and if tears still flow from her eyes, these tears will no longer have the same bitterness, they will adorn her soul with the austere brightness of suffering loved and accepted with gratitude.” |
2-23-7 (Truth), 44-23-1 (Reveals to Little Ones), 48-23-1 (The Wise and the Prudent), 50-23-2 (Jesus's Wounds, Pains) |
| 23 | GCII 961, June 20 or 29(?), 1896, LT 190: to Mother Marie de Gon- zague. |
20-23-3 |
“Blessed is the one who places his support in Me, for he is setting up
in his heart steps which will lift him up to heaven. Notice, little lamb,
that I am not saying that one must separate himself
completely from
creatures, despise their love, their kindness, but, on the contrary,
one
must accept them in order
to please Me, and to use them as so many
steps, for to separate oneself
from creatures would serve only one things:
to walk and go astray on the paths of this earth….
To lift oneself up one
must place his foot on the
steps of creatures and attach himself to Me
only…
Do you understand, little lamb?” “Lord, I believe it, but above all I feel that Your words are the truth, for they bring peace, joy to my little heart. Ah! may they enter sweetly into the very big heart of my shepherdess!… |
2-23-9 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials), 19-23-1 (The Words of God), 28-23-1 (Peace) |
| 24 | LC 38, Apr. 18. |
20-24-1 | 3. …“And even now I haven't changed my opinion. I've had a lot of trouble over it, I admit, for it's always so easy to place the blame on the absent, and this immediately calms the one who is complaining. Yes, but…it is just the contrary with me. If I'm not loved, that's just too bad! I tell the whole truth, and if anyone doesn't wish to know the truth, let her not come looking for me.” | |
| 24 | LC 42, May 9. |
20-24-2 | 1. “We can say, without any boasting, that we have received very special graces and lights; we stand in the truth and see things in their proper light.” |
24-24-13 (Mercy of God, Graces) |
| 24 | LC 67, June 22. |
20-24-3 |
She was seated in the garden in the wheelchair. When I came out to her in the
afternoon, she said: “How well I understand Our Lord's words to St.Teresa, our holy Mother: ‘Do you know, my daughter, who are the ones who really love me? It's those who recognize that everything that can't be referred to me is a lie.’ “Oh, little Mother, I really feel that this is true! Yes, everything outside of God is vanity.” |
|
| 24 | LC 92, July 12. |
20-24-4 |
7. It seemed to me she was down-hearted in spite of her happy
mood, and I said: “It's for our sake that you take on
this happy mood and say these cheerful things, isn't it?” “ I always act without any ‘pretence.’” |
13-24-4 (Joyful Souls, Cheerfulness), 14-24-16 (The Little Way) |
| 24 | LC 105, July 21. |
20-24-5 | 4. “I've never acted like Pilate, who refused to listen to the truth (John 18:38). I've always said to God: O my God, I really want to listen to You; I beg You to answer me when I say humbly: What is truth? Make me see things as they really are. Let nothing cause me to be deceived.” |
13-24-4 (Joyful Souls, Cheerfulness), 14-24-16 (The Little Way) |
| 24 | LC 131, Aug. 4. |
20-24-6 |
3. Someone brought her a sheaf of corn; she
detached the most beautiful one and said to me: ”Mother, this ear of corn is the image of my soul: God has entrusted me with graces for myself and for many others.” Then fearing she had entertained a proud thought, she said: “Oh, how I want to be humiliated and mistreated in order to see if I have humility of heart! However, when I was humbled on former occasions, I was very happy. Yes, it seems to me I am humble. God shows me truth; I feel so much that everything comes from Him.” |
12-24-12 (Humility, Humbleness), 24-24-21 (Mercy of God, Graces) |
| 24 | LC 134, Aug. 5. |
20-24-7 |
4 Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart told her that when she died the angels
would come to her in the company of Our Lord, that she would see them
resplendent with light and beauty: “All these images do me no good; I can nourish myself on nothing but the truth. This is why I've never wanted any visions. We can't see, here on earth, heaven, the angels, etc., just as they are. I prefer to wait until after my death.” |
46-24-3 (Revelation) |
| 24 | LC 143, Aug. 9. |
20-24-8 |
4. They told her she was a saint: “No, I'm not a saint; I've never performed the actions of a saint. I'm a very little soul upon whom God has bestowed graces; that's what I am. What I say is the truth; you'll see this in heaven.” |
21-24-8 (A Saint), 24-24-24 (Mercy of God, Graces), 42-24-9 (Works, Actions, Great Actions) |
| 24 | LC 146, Aug. 11. |
20-24-9 |
6. She told us all sorts of things about the time of the
influenza epidemic. I said to her: “What fatigue you
underwent! And how nice and amiable you were!
Certainly,
all that cheerfulness was not sincere; you were suffering
too much in both body and soul.” With a smile, she said: “I never ‘pretend,’ I'm not like Jeroboam's wife.” (I King 14.) |
13-24-5 (Joyful Soul, Cheerfulness) |
| 24 | LC 161 -162, Aug. 21. |
20-24-10 |
“
For a sermon on the Blessed Virgin to please me and do me any
good, I must see
her real life, not her imagined life. I'm sure that her real life was very simple.
They show her to us as unapproachable, but they should present her as imitable,
bringing out her virtues, saying that she lived by faith just like ourselves,
giving proofs of this from the Gospel, where we read: ‘And they did not
understand the words which He spoke to them.’ And that other no less mysterious
statement: ’His father and mother marveled at what was said about him.’ This
admiration presupposes a certain surprise, don't you think so, little Mother? “We know very well that the Blessed Virgin is Queen of heaven and earth, but she is more Mother than Queen; and we should not say, on account of her prerogatives, that she surpasses all the saints in glory just as the sun at its rising makes the stars disappear from sight. My God! How strange that would be! A mother who makes her children's glory vanish! I myself think just the contrary. I believe she'll increase the splendor of the elect very much. “It's good to speak about her prerogatives, but we should not stop at this, and if, in a sermon, we are obliged from beginning to end to exclaim and say: Ah! Ah!, we should grow tired! Who knows whether some soul would not reach the point of feeling a certain estrangement from a creature so superior and would not say: If things are such, it's better to go and shine as well as one is able in some little corner! What the Blessed Virgin has more than we have is the privilege of not being able to sin, she was exempt from the stain of original sin; but on the other hand, she wasn't as fortunate as we are, since she didn't have a Blessed Virgin to love. And this is one more sweetness for us and one less sweetness for her! |
21-24-9 (A Saint), 25-24-5 (Glory), 27-24-11 (Sinners, Sins) |
| 24 | LC 166, Aug. 23. |
20-24-11 |
9. She was telling me that all she had heard preached on
the Blessed Virgin hadn't touched her: “Let the priests, then, show us practicable virtues! It's good to speak of her privileges, but it's necessary above all that we can imitate her. She prefers imitation to admiration, and her life was so simple! However good a sermon is on the Blessed Virgin, if we are obliged all the time to say: Ah! … Ah! … we grow tired. How I like singing to her: The narrow road to heaven you have made visible (She said: easy) When practicing always the most humble virtues.” |
12-24-15 (Humility, Humbleness) |
| 24 | LC 181, Sep. 3. |
20-24-12 |
1. I was reporting what had been told me about the honors given to The Czar of Russia
in France: “Ah! this doesn't dazzle me at all! Speak to me about God, the example of the saints, about everything that is the truth.” |
21-24-10 (A Saint) |
| 24 | LC 199 -200, Sept. 25. |
20-24-13 |
7 She had said to me on one of
those last days of suffering: “O Mother, it's very easy to write beautiful things about suffering, but writing is nothing, nothing! One must suffer in order to know!” I had retained a painful impression from this statement of hers, when, that same day, appearing to remember what she had told me, she looked at me in a very special and solemn way, and pronounced these words: “ I really feel now that what I've said and written is true about everything. … It's true that I wanted to suffer much for God's sake, and it's true that I still desire this.” |
2-24-75 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials) |
| 24 | LC 205, Sept. 30. |
20-24-14 |
“O Mother, present me quickly to the Blessed Virgin! I'm a
baby who
can't stand anymore!… Prepare me for death.” Mother Prioress told her that since she had always understood humility, her preparation was already made. She reflected a moment and spoke these words humbly: “Yes, it seems to me I never sought anything but the truth; yes, I have understood humility of heart.... It seems to me I'm humble.” She repeated once more: “All I wrote about my desires for suffering. Oh! it's true just the same!”… “And I am not sorry for delivering myself up to Love.” With insistence: “Oh! no, I'm not sorry; on the contrary!” A little later: “Never would I have believed it was possible to suffer so much! never! never! I cannot explain this except by the ardent desires I have had to save souls.” |
2-24-78 (Sufferings, Sacrifices, Crosses, Trials), 12-24-17 (Humility, Humbleness), (Salvation of Souls) |