Sunday, January 14, 2007

Words of Wisdom...

Today I offer you some words of wisdom from Therese of Lisieux. Therese are some of the things that she taught her sisters in the last months that she was alive. They are from the prayerbook that I have been assembling for the convent.

On always seeing the good side of things..."I always see the good side of things. There are some who set about giving themselves the most trouble. for me, it's just the opposite. If I have nothing but pure suffering, if the heavens are so black that I see no break in the clouds, well, I make this my joy! I revel in it! I did this during Papa's trials which made me more glorious than a queen"

On not seeing 'signs'...said to Celine
"Don't be astonished if I don't appear to you after my death, and if you see nothing extraordinary as a sign of my happiness. You will remember that it's 'my little way' not to desire to see anything. You know well what I've said so often to God, to the angels, and to the saints: My desire is not to seem them here on earth."

On going to purgatory...
"I don't know whether I'll go to purgatory or not, but I'm not in the least bit disturbed about it; however, if I do go there, I'll not regret having done nothing to avoid it. I shall not be sorry for having worked solely for the salvation of souls. How happy I was to learn that holy Mother, St. Teresa, thought the same way!"

On going to Heaven to be with Therese...(said to Marie of the Trinity when Marie asked Therese to remember her in Heaven)
"Very soon you will come with me; it won't be long, you'll see! Thus far you've only seen the shell; soon you'll see the little chick."

On trials and suffering...
"I'm reminded of a piece of cloth stretched over a frame to be embroidered; then nobody shows up to embroider it! I wait and wait! It's useless!...However, this isn't really surprising since little children don't know what they want! I'm saying this because I am thinking of little Jesus; He is the one who stretched me over a frame of sufferings in order to have the pleasure of embroidering me; then He loosens me so that He can go up to Heaven and show them His beautiful work."

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