THE STORY OF A SOUL

One thing’s beauty doesn’t take away from another thing’s beauty. God loves everything the same anyways.

“I saw that every flower He has created has a beauty of its own, that the splendor of the rose and the lily’s whiteness do not deprive the violet of its scent nor make less ravishing the daisy’s charm. I saw that if every little flower wished to be a rose, Nature would lose her spring adornments, and the fields would be no longer enameled with their varied flowers. So it is in the world of souls, the living garden of the Lord. It pleases Him to create great Saints, who may be compared with the lilies or the rose; but He has also created little ones, who must be content to be daisies or violets, nestling at His feet to delight His eyes when He should choose to look at them” (4).

“Just as the sun shines equally on the cedar and the little flower, so the Divine Sun shines equally on everyone, great and small” (4).

“I told you once how it puzzled me that God did not give everyone the same amount of glory in Heaven, and I feared they could not all be happy. You sent me off to fetch one of Father’s big glasses and made me put my little thimble by the side of it; then you filled them both up with water and asked me which I thought was the fuller. I had to admit that one was just as full as the other because neither of them would hold any more. That was the way you helped me to grasp how it was that in Heaven the least have no cause to envy the greatest. By explaining such great mysteries in a way I could understand, you gave my soul its necessary food” (24).

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St. Therese (known as the “little flower”) relies on God’s care.

“If God had not poured out His light so lavishly upon His ‘little flower,’ she could never have become acclimatized to earth, for she would have been too frail to weather the rain and storm; she had to have warmth and gentle dew and the soft breezes of spring, and even in the winter of trial these never failed her” (17).

“The little flower which had been transplanted to the mountain of Carmel soon turned to the Director of directors, and she blossomed in the shadow of His Cross, having His tears and His Precious Blood for a refreshing dew and His adorable face for the sun” (89).

“Placing myself in the arms of God, I did what a baby would do if it were frightened: I hid my head on my Father’s shoulder” (137).

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We shouldn’t get caught up in only our own understanding.

“How can a heart that is taken up with human love be fully united to God? I am sure it is not possible. I have seen so many people attracted by this false light, fly to it as moths do and burn their wings, then flutter, wounded, back to Jesus, the Eternal Fire which burns without consuming” (46).

“Suppose the son of a skillful doctor falls over a stone lying in his path and breaks a limb. His father hurries to help him and dresses his wound so skillfully that it heals completely. Naturally, he is quite right to love such a father and will be most grateful to him. But supposing again this doctor saw the dangerous stone, anticipated that his son would fall over it and moved it out of the way when no one was looking; then his son would know nothing of the danger from which his father’s loving care had saved him and so would have no reason to show gratitude. He would love him less than if he had healed some serious wound. But if he did find out the truth, surely his love would be even greater?” (47).

“I remember how often I would say that line from a beautiful poem that Father used to recite: ‘The world is but a ship, and not thy home’; young as I was, these words encouraged me, and although so many of my childish dreams have faded with the years, the symbol of a ship still charms me and makes my exile easier to bear. Does not the Book of Wisdom say: ‘Life is like a ship that passeth through the waves: when it is gone, the trace thereof cannot be found’ (Wis 5:10)” (50).

“I rejoiced in the thought that poverty consisted in lacking not only little luxuries, but even things one could not do without. In the dark, I found my soul flooded with divine light” (95).

“A child naturally makes a fuss under the surgeon’s knife, sure that the remedy is worse than the disease; but he will be delighted at being able to run about and play when he finds, a few days later, that he has been cured. It is just the same with souls: before long, they are quite ready to admit that they would rather have a little bitterness than [too much] sugar” (139).

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Children are especially impressionable, so the world would be better if everyone was raised caringly and taught the Truth.

“Innocent souls like these, I thought, were like soft wax, ready for any impression, evil ones, unfortunately, as well as good. I understood what Jesus meant when He said: ‘It were better to be thrown into the sea than to scandalize one of these little ones’ (Matt 18:6)” (64).

“‘Give me a fulcrum,’ said Archimedes, ‘and with a lever I will move the world.’ He was asking the impossible, and yet this is just what the Saints have been given. The fulcrum is none other than Almighty God Himself; their lever, prayer, the prayer which enkindles the fire of love. It is with this lever that they have uplifted the world, and with this lever those who are still fighting in the world will go on raising it until the End of Time” (153).

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We can make a big difference just by doing small acts of service (aka “the Little Way”).

“I noticed that she could not cut her bread very easily, so I used to do that too before finally leaving her. As she had never told me she wanted me to do it, she was touched, and it was this unlooked-for act of kindness which won her heart completely; though I learned later that what touched her most of all was the fact that when I had done all I could, I always gave her, so she said, ‘my very best smile’” (146).

“For a long time I had to kneel during meditation near a Sister who could not stop fidgeting; if it was not with her rosary, it was with goodness knows what else. Maybe no one else noticed it; I have a very sensitive ear. But you have no idea how much it annoyed me. I wanted to turn around and glare at the culprit to make her be quiet, but deep in my heart I felt that the best thing to do was to put up with it patiently, for the love of God first of all, and also not to hurt her feelings. So I kept quiet, bathed in perspiration often enough, while my prayer was nothing more than the prayer of suffering! In the end, I tried to find some way of bearing it peacefully and joyfully, at least in my inmost heart; then I even tried to like this wretched little noise. It was impossible not to hear it, so I turned my whole attention to listening really closely to it, as if it were a magnificent concert, and spent the rest of the time offering it to Jesus” (147).

“What a very little soul I am! I can only offer very little things to God” (147).

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THE WAY OF TRUST OF LOVE

(By: Jacque Philippe)

Even though it can be tempting to try to focus on blaming others for when life doesn’t go the way we want it to, doing so leads to a cycle of negativity (that we can only escape through acceptance of the situation and thankfulness of what we do have).

“People are never satisfied with life, with the government, with each other; they always demand more, claim more rights, and accuse one another instead of living in trust and responsibility. Thus they shut themselves off in what soon becomes a vicious circle: the more discontented they are, the less they receive, and so they are still more unsatisfied. Here is a real ‘black hole’ that swallows up all light! // This really is one of the basic laws of life. The more trust we have, the more we thank God for the way our lives are going, even if plenty of things aren’t exactly as we would like, the more we will advance. If we give thanks for what we have already received, we will receive a lot more, and in the end we’ll see our hearts being filled to overflowing. // Today, people often adopt a victim mentality. I’m unhappy, I don’t have that, I’ve suffered, and it’s all other people’s fault. In the United States, the number of lawyers has grown enormously. People sue each other for anything and everything. Sometimes it is justified, but sometimes it is absurd. In France, a few years ago, a couple had a disabled baby; they couldn’t accept the situation and tried to sue the doctor who’d done the prenatal test and hadn’t seen the disability. They took the doctor to court, saying the birth of this disabled child had harmed the family and he was responsible. People lose common sense instead of welcoming life as it is, including the parts that are sometimes painful. // When we accept life as it is, with trust, it becomes good and beautiful, even in its difficult aspects. But if we’re quick to complain and demand more rights, life becomes unlivable. It isn’t God’s fault or the fault of our lives; our inner attitude is destructive. // Conversely, faith, hope, love, and thanksgiving are remedies, counterweights, to the victim complex in which we sometimes are at risk of becoming entangled” (114-115).