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
God favoured us, for a Priest was on the point of celebrating
Mass; we told him of our great wish, and he immediately asked for
two hosts, which he placed on the paten. You may picture, dear
Mother, the ecstatic happiness of that Communion; no words can
describe it. What will be our joy when we communicate eternally in
the dwelling of the King of Heaven? It will be undimmed by the
grief of parting, and will know no end. His House will be ours for
all eternity, and there will be no need to covet fragments from
the walls hallowed by the Divine Presence. He will not give us His
earthly Home--He only shows it to us to make us love poverty and
the hidden life. What He has in store for us is the Palace of His
Glory, where we shall no longer see Him veiled under the form of a
child or the appearance of bread, but as He is, in the brightness
of His Infinite Beauty.
Now I am going to tell you about Rome--Rome, where I thought to
find comfort and where I found the cross. It was night when we
arrived. I was asleep, and was awakened by the porters calling:
"Roma!" The pilgrims caught up the cry and repeated: "Roma, Roma!"
Then I knew that it was not a dream, I was really in Rome!
Our first day, and perhaps the most enjoyable, was spent outside
the walls. There, everything retains its stamp of antiquity,
whilst in Rome, with its hotels and shops, one might fancy oneself
in Paris. This drive in the Roman Campagna has left a specially
delightful impression on my mind.
How shall I describe the feelings which thrilled me when I gazed
on the Coliseum? At last I saw the arena where so many Martyrs had
shed their blood for Christ. My first impulse was to kiss the
ground sanctified by their glorious combats. But what a
disappointment! The soil has been raised, and the real arena is
now buried at the depth of about twenty-six feet.
As the result of excavations the centre is nothing but a mass of
rubbish, and an insurmountable barrier guards the entrance; in any
case no one dare penetrate into the midst of these dangerous
ruins. But was it possible to be in Rome and not go down to the
real Coliseum? No, indeed! And I no longer listened to the guide's
explanations: one thought only filled my mind--I must reach the
arena.
We are told in the Gospel that St. Mary Magdalen remained close to
the Sepulchre and stooped down constantly to look in; she was
rewarded by seeing two Angels. So, like her, I kept stooping down
and I saw, not two Angels, but what I was in search of. I uttered
a cry of joy and called out to my sister: "Come, follow me, we
shall be able to get through." We hurried on at once, scrambling
over the ruins which crumbled under our feet. Papa, aghast at our
boldness, called out to us, but we did not hear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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