The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux: With Additional Writings and Sayings of St. ThérèseThérèse, de Lisieux, Saint
Religion
The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux: With Additional Writings and Sayings of St. Thérèse
Thérèse, de Lisieux, Saint
Christian saints -- France -- Lisieux -- Biography; Lisieux (France) -- Biography; Thérèse, de Lisieux, Saint, 1873-1897
"I have glorified Thee upon earth: I have finished the work which
Thou gavest me to do. I have manifested Thy name to the men whom
Thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me
Thou gavest them; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known
that all things which Thou hast given me are from Thee: because
the words which Thou gavest me I have given to them; and they
have received them, and have known for certain that I came forth
from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me. I pray
for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast
given me, because they are Thine. And all mine are Thine, and
Thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more
in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy
Father, keep them in Thy name, whom Thou hast given me, that they
may be one, as we also are one. And now I come to Thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in
themselves. I do not ask that Thou take them away out of the
world, but that Thou preserve them from evil. They are not of the
world, as I also am not of the world. And not for them only do I
pray, but for those also who through their word shall believe in
me. Father, I will that where I am they also whom Thou hast given
me may be with me, that they may see my glory which Thou hast
given me, because Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the
world. And I have made known Thy name unto them, and will make it
known, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them
and I in them."[2]
Yea, Lord, thus would I repeat Thy words, before losing myself in
Thy loving embrace. Perhaps it is daring, but, for a long time,
hast thou not allowed me to be daring with Thee? Thou hast said to
me, as the Prodigal's father to his elder son: "All I have is
thine."[3] And therefore I may use thy very own words to draw down
favours from Our Heavenly Father on all who are dear to me.
My God, Thou knowest that I have ever desired to love Thee alone.
It has been my only ambition. Thy love has gone before me, even
from the days of my childhood. It has grown with my growth, and
now it is an abyss whose depths I cannot fathom.
Love attracts love; mine darts towards Thee, and would fain make
the abyss brim over, but alas! it is not even as a dewdrop in the
ocean. To love Thee as Thou lovest me, I must make Thy Love mine
own. Thus alone can I find rest. O my Jesus, it seems to me that
Thou couldst not have overwhelmed a soul with more love than Thou
hast poured out on mine, and that is why I dare ask Thee to love
those Thou hast given me, even as Thou lovest me.
If, in Heaven, I find that thou lovest them more than Thou lovest
me, I shall rejoice, for I acknowledge that their deserts are
greater than mine, but now, I can conceive no love more vast than
that with which Thou hast favoured me, without any merit on my
part.
. . . . . . .
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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