JESUS! As regards the licenses, with the help of heaven I hope to get the king’s easily. There may be a certain amount of worry about it, as I know by experience that Satan cannot endure our houses and always persecutes us, but God is all-powerful and the evil one goes off with a broken head.
JESUS! May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with you! Although I have not written before, you may be sure that I have not forgotten you in my poor prayers to our Lord and that I shared your happiness. May He permit you to enjoy it in His service for many years, for I hope your happiness will not impede this service, whatever obstacles may arise.
MY DEAR LITTLE SISTER, You did well to write to me, and I understand everything . . . everything, everything, everything! . . . You haven’t committed the shadow of any evil; I know what these kinds of temptations are so well that I can assure you of this without any fear, and, besides, Jesus tells me this in the depths of my heart. . . . We must despise temptations and pay no attention whatsoever to them.
JESUS! . . . Dear Little Céline, Your letter gave great sadness to my soul! Poor little Papa! . . . No, the thoughts of Jesus are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. . . . He is offering us a chalice as bitter as our feeble nature can bear! . . .
CÉLINE . . . JESUS must love you with a special love to be trying you in this way. Do you know that I am almost jealous of you? To those who love more He gives more, and to those who love less He gives less! . . .
OH! PAULINE, it is very true that a drop of gall must be mingled in all chalices; I find that trials help very much in detaching us from this earth. They make us look higher than this world. Here below, nothing can satisfy us. We cannot enjoy a little rest except in being ready to do God’s will.
St. Thérèse believes that God is ready to set our humanity on fire. Though we are guilty before the Face of God, the Father does not look on us with anger, but gazes on us to contemplate His only begotten Son. He is no passive observer of human affairs. He stands ready to give everything to us for the asking—possession of all His merits, all His justice, all that is owed to Him for what He accomplished in His Humanity.
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